
Qass_^ 
Book-i 



»*> * 



( 

SOW WELL AND REAP WELL; 



OR, 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 



BY 



S. G. GOODRICH, 



*■ Since custom is the principal magistrate of man's life, let men by all means endeavor 
to obtain good customs. Certainly custom is most perfect when it beginneth in young 
years. This we call Education; which is, in effect, but early custom. "....Bacon. 



THIRD EDITION. 



ALBANY: 
ERASTUS H. PEASE. 

1846. 







Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year 1846. 

BY S. G. GOODRICH, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 



/ 



PREFACE 



In the autumn of 1837, there was an assembly in the 
state house at Boston, which presented two conditions of 
society. Among a crowd, consisting of the pale-faced 
race, were a number of red warriors from the West. 
They were the chiefs of their tribes, the picked men of 
their several nations; the brave of the battle-field, the 
orator and sage of the council. In reply to an address 
from the chief magistrate of the commonwealth, several 
of them made speeches. But how narrow was their 
range of thought ; how few their ideas ; how slight their 
knowledge; how feeble their grasp of intellect! They 
were, indeed, powerful in limb, but they had evidently 
the imperfect and limited comprehension of children. As 
animals, they were athletic, sinewy, and active, but as 
men, they had a coarse and revolting aspect. If you 
looked into their countenances as an index to the mind, 
you looked in vain for any trace of those refined emotions 
which belong to civilized man. It is frightful to gaze 
into the human face and see only the sinister stare of a 
wild animal. The eye of a cultivated human being is 
full of depth and meaning : if you read it attentively, it 
seems, like a mirror, to reveal the inward world of thought 
and feeling, as the bosom of the smooth lake reflects the 
image of the earth around and heaven above. But the 



IV PREFACE. 

eye of these savages, like that of the wolf or the tiger, 
though bright and glassy, had no such depth of expres- 
sion, and seemed only to manifest a wary attention to 
visible objects and the passing scene. It bespoke no in- 
ward working, as if the mind were busy in weaving its 
woof of reflection, and unfolded no emotion, as if some 
seal were broken and a new page of revelation opened on 
the soul. It seemed indeed but a watchful sentinel to 
mark outward things, not a mirror imaging forth a spirit 
within. 

Among the savages, in the scene I have described, was 
the wife of the chief; but she was a subdued and down- 
cast slave, her humble place being ever in the rear of the 
train. On her shone no smile from the master, no gen- 
tleness from the husband, no tenderness from the father. 
His bronzed features could not reveal sentiments like 
these, for the bosom within was a stranger to them. 

Such were the master spirits of the savage race. Com- 
pare them with Edward Everett, who addressed them on the 
occasion in behalf of the palefaces, and consider the dif- 
ference between savage and civilized man I Consider the 
compass of thought, the vastness of knowledge, the power 
of combination, the richness of fancy, the depth, variety 
and refinement of sentiment, which belong to one, and 
the narrowness of mind, the poverty of soul, which cha- 
racterize the other. And what is the mighty magic which 
thus makes men to differ ? 

The easy answer to this interrogation is offered in a 
single word — Education. I know indeed that in com- 
mon use this only means the instruction given at our 
seminaries. We speak of an English education, a libe- 
ral education, a fashionable education. In these cases, 
the word has a restricted and technical signification, and 



PREFACE. V 

includes little more than instruction in certain arts and 
certain branches of knowledge. The learned politician 
who gave as a toast on some public occasion, " Education, 
or the three It's, Reading, Riting and Rithmetic," inter- 
preted the word according to this popular acceptation. 
It has, however, a more enlarged sense, and legitimately 
includes all those influences which go to unfold the facul- 
ties of man or determine human character. It is in this 
wide sense that education may be offered as explaining 
the difference between savage and civilized man. It is 
in this sense that education is the fashioner of the great 
human family, including every individual of the race. It 
is in this sense that man is ever the subject of education, 
from the cradle to the grave. It is in this sense that it 
has a force almost realizing the heathen notions of des- 
tiny. "We should therefore regard seminary instruction 
merely as a branch of education, not as the whole system ; 
a link, but not the entire chain. In the following pages, 
I propose to consider the subject in this more extended 
view, and shall endeavor to show that, in limiting our 
notions of education to mere school tuition, we over- 
look important, perhaps the most important, instruments 
of instruction ; neglect the most efficient means of mould- 
ing human character ; and thus, by a common error, do 
infinite mischief to individuals and society at large. In 
pursuing this course, I shall bestow particular attention 
upon the chief engine by which character is formed — the 
Fireside Seminary. In connection with this subject, I 
shall have occasion to speak particularly of the Common 
School, the great auxiliary of the fireside, and shall en- 
deavor to suggest some means of rendering it more effi- 
cient in accomplishing its legitimate ends. 
The theory which I present to the reader in the fol* 
1* 



Xriii PREFACE. 

revision of those more experienced than myself. At all 
events, the subject is of great importance, and though I 
may not have furnished the parent a manual which may 
serve as a guide in the high task of training his children 
in the way in which they should go, I may still succeed 
in rousing him to inquiry, and this will be a great point 
gained. 

I have but to add, that if, in the following pages, I may 
sometimes appear to be repetitious, I hope it may be 
excused, from the obvious importance of impressing cer- 
tain leading points upon the mind of the reader ; and that 
if I often use familiar illustrations, it may be deemed 
compatible with the design of a work intended for gene- 
ral circulation, and in the preparation of which practical 
effect, not rhetorical daintiness, should be the guide of 
the writer. 



PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION. 

In offering a new edition of this work to the public, 
the author has added, at the request of the publisher, 
a leading title, significant of the general drift of the 
volume, and in various parts has made modifications, 
which time and reflection have suggested. It would 
have been the choice of the writer to have remodelled 
the entire work, for it was originally produced under 
circumstances which excluded that careful weighing 
of words and sentences due to so important a subject. 
But as a new edition of it seems to be called for, the 
author permits it again to go before the public, emend- 
ed only so far as present circumstances will allow. 



CONTENTS. 

Page 

Introduction : The true end of Philosophical Inquiry 13 

Man designed by his Creator to be the subject of Edu- 
cation . . . 16 

Man the subject of Education in relation to his Phy- 
sical Nature 17 

Man the subject of Education in respect to his Intel- 
lectual Faculties 21 

Man the subject of Education in respect to his Moral 
Faculties 26 

Man distinguished from all other living things as the 
subject of Education . . . . . . 33 



X CONTENTS. 

Page 

The power of Education over Man no new doctrine 37 

Inferences 42 

Education forms Individual Character . . 51 

The basis of Character is usually laid in Early Life 52 
Provision of Providence that the controlling lessons of 
life shall be given by Parents . . . .54 

The Fireside 56 

Obligations of Parents 64 

Leading Characteristics of Children ... 77 

Family Government 85 

Religion 108 

Morals . 126 

Truth .... . . .151 

Justice 152 

Mercy 155 

Forgiveness . . . . . . .159 

Pity, Patience, &c 160 

Piscretion , . ... . 161 



CONTENTS. Xi 

Page 

Cheerfulness 163 

Fidelity 169 

Prudence 170 

Courage 171 

Self-government 174 

Patriotism 178 

Duties of Citizenship 183 

Perseverance •...».. 192 

Industry 196 

Order and Neatness 204 

Warnings . .... 215 

Charity . . . . 228 

Health 231 

Amusements 249 

Intellectual Culture . 254 

The Primary School . . . . .255 

Other Seminaries 291 

General Observations .... 303 



Xll CONTENTS. 

Page 

Books ....... 308 

Accomplishments 311 

Manners , . . 315 

Honor 320 

Grace 321 

Politeness .... . . . 322 

Notes on Good Breeding .... 329 

General Remarks . . . . . . . 336 

Conclusion 342 



SOW WELL 



REAP WELL; 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION 



INTRODUCTION: THE TRUE END OF PHILO- 
SOPHICAL INQUIRY. 

To the careless or casual observer, the works 
of nature present an assemblage of objects with- 
out plan, arrangement, or design. To him, the 
surface of the earth seems but a disorganized 
mass of rocks, stones, and soils ; to him, the 
yarious tribes of animals are but as a confused 
Babel, and the vegetable kingdom a perplexing 
and bewildering maze of trees, plants, and 
2 



14 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

shrubs. But to the patient and philosophical 
student of nature, these fields of science assume 
a very different aspect. To him. the rugged 
hills and mountains are susceptible of classi- 
fication, and the very stones scattered over their 
surface are known to have their minutest parti- 
cles arranged in precise angles, according to an 
inflexible law. To him, the animal kingdom 
unfolds a stupendous system of living beings, 
rising in regular gradation, from the sponge, 
that links the animal to the vegetable world, 
up to man, who stands at the head of creation. 
To him, the boundless variety of the forest and 
the field, of tree and plant, of leaf and flower, 
are marshalled forth in all the order of a well- 
appointed army. 

Thus it is that nature unfolds her beautiful 
mysteries to the student of her works. Thus it 
is that, while the thoughtless and the indifferent 
stumble on through life, either blindfolded by 
ignorance or distracted by doubt, the philoso- 
pher is admitted into the temple of truth and 
instructed in the ways of Providence. And 
what is the grand result to which one thus ini- 
tiated at last arrives ? It is this — that in all the 
works of God there is design ; that in the ani- 
mal, mineral, and vegetable kingdom there is 
organization, system, arrangement j that in the 



END OF PHILOSOPHICAL INQUIRY. 15 

shapeless stone, the blade of grass, the buzzing 
insect, and the grazing quadruped, — in each and 
all, there are conclusive proofs of contrivance, 
proceeding from One who acts according to a 
settled plan, and regulates his various works 
by universal and immutable principles. 

Now it is one of the great objects of all phi- 
losophy, as well that of every-day life as that 
of the more abstruse student, to discover the 
design of the Creator in his various works, or, 
in other words, to discover the laws of nature. 
If the gardener desires success in the cultivation 
of a plant, he endeavors to find out the climate 
which is most genial to it, the soil in which it 
thrives best, and the positions which it seems to 
choose ; that is to say, he seeks to understand 
its nature, and, having made himself acquainted 
with this, he adapts his cultivation to it. He 
does not attempt to change its nature, for expe- 
rience has taught him that this would be ridicu- 
lous and vain. Having once ascertained the 
design of its Maker, he follows out that design, 
and attempts in no other way to bring the 
object of his care to perfection. 

Thus, in the treatment of animals, our object 
being to raise them to the highest state of im- 
provement, we consult the design of the Creator 
in their formation ; in other words, we endeavor 



16 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

to find out the laws which regulate their nature, 
and follow the indications thus afforded with 
implicit obedience. 

Such is the philosophy of every-day life, and 
such is all true philosophy. Its end is to dis- 
cover the designs of the Creator, for we know 
that these proceed from Omniscience, and any 
human attempt to go beyond them would be 
presumptuous folly. It is the highest object of 
human reason to search out and comprehend 
the laws of nature, or the designs of the Cre- 
ator, and, having done this, common sense 
teaches us that we may safely follow the lead 
which is thus afforded us. 



MAN DESIGNED BY HIS CREATOR TO BE THE 
SUBJECT OF EDUCATION. 

If, then, our inquiry were as to the best means 
of improving the condition of man, we should 
first investigate his nature, or seek to discover 
the design of the Creator in his formation. We 
should begin with the infant, watch the develop- 
ment of its faculties, and study the process by 
which these are unfolded. We should go on, 
through childhood and youth, to maturity, and 
see if we could perceive any leading principle 
or design, through which the intellectual, moral 3 



MAN THE SUBJECT OF EDUCATION. 17 

and physical powers are unfolded and perfected. 
To aid in this inquiry, we should make a com- 
parison between man and the mere animal cre- 
ation, carefully noting down those points in 
which he may resemble, or differ from, them. 
The plain inference that would result from such 
an inquiry is this — that while all other animated 
beings arc incapable of instruction, and reach 
their perfection without it, man is designed to 
be the subject of education ; that through edu- 
cation his faculties receive their development ; 
that by education alone he can reach the end 
and design of his being. 



MAN THE SUBJECT OF EDUCATION IN RELATION 
TO HIS PHYSICAL NATURE. 

Let us for a moment pursue this plan of 
investigation. We begin with the infant, and 
compare it with various young animals. Most 
quadrupeds are able to walk in a few hours 
after their birth. In this, they need no instruc- 
tion beyond that instinct which is born with 
them. But before the infant can perform this 
apparently simple act, he must go through the 
long and tedious training of twelve months. 
He must make ten thousand efforts before he 
can command the use of his limbs; he must 
2* 



18 FIRESIDE EDUCATION'. 

make trial after trial; he must be aided and 
instructed ; in short, every muscle in his body 
is to be educated to perform its task. 

There are many birds, particularly those of 
the gallinaceous tribe, which in twelve hours 
after they are hatched run about and pick up 
seeds, selecting them with careful discrimination 
from amidst the earth and gravel among which 
they are scattered. How different is it with the 
infant ! How many efforts must it make before 
it can even pick up a pin ! It is, in the first 
place, to acquire a knowledge of distances; it 
must then learn to measure these with its arm j 
that arm, too, must be instructed; the thumb 
and finger must be taught. All this various 
knowledge must be acquired -by patient train- 
ing, and brought to harmonize in one effort. 
Thus, an act which animals perform instinc- 
tively, and immediately after they come into 
existence, cannot be performed by a child until 
it has passed through an elaborate education of 
several months. 

The animal tribes have no articulate lan- 
guage, but such as they have is intuitive. How 
far it is the instrument of communicating ideas, 
we cannot precisely determine ; but we know 
that their various cries are understood by them, 
and serve, to some extent, the purposes of our 



MAN THE SUBJECT OF EDUCATION. 19 

more artificial and arbitrary modes of speech. 
These cries are universal in the several species, 
and are not adopted from imitation, but from 
instinct. The young duck that is hatched and 
reared by the hen does not imitate the notes of 
its foster-mother, but makes precisely the same 
sound as the parent that gave it existence. If 
you take the eggs of various birds, and cause 
them to be hatched in one nest, the young ones 
will severally break forth with the language of 
their several parents. In Japan and China, it 
is common to hatch chickens by steam, and I 
have seen the same process in London. These 
chickens, cut off from all intercourse with their 
kindred of the barnyard, invariably utter the 
same cries, whether expressive of pain or plea- 
sure. I know that some birds have conside- 
rable powers of imitation. The parrot may be 
taught to utter sentences, and the caged mock- 
ing-bird will repeat snatches of music caught 
from the flute. But these powers are of small 
compass, and confined to a few species. They 
not only show a faculty of imitation, but to some 
extent a capacity for instruction. It must be re- 
marked, however, that these arts, thus acquired, 
are not material to the existence of their posses- 
sors. They do not contribute to their happiness 
or elevate them in the scale of being. The gay 



20 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

parrot of the Brazilian grove, uttering his wild 
jargon in freedom, is a superior bird to the 
imprisoned parrot, who has been taught to 
speak, and who, as a diploma given in evidence 
of his liberal education, has his tongue severed 
in twain. But speech is essential to man. It 
is evidently the design of the Creator that man 
should be the master of an articulate language, 
and that this should be the great instrument, 
not only of communicating ideas, but of unfold- 
ing and amplifying the intellectual powers. 

Thus, while the animal tribes have their lan- 
guage by intuition, man must acquire his through 
the process of education. The tongue, the ear, 
the lungs, all the oral mechanism, consisting 
of a thousand nerves, muscles, and fibres, must 
each and all be instructed, each and all must 
be taught of experience, each and all must re- 
ceive line upon line, and precept upon precept. 
The first articulate syllable of an infant is a 
gigantic effort. The acquisition of a language, 
simple as it may seem, is the result of innume- 
rable efforts of a similar kind. 

Thus far, our remarks have been chiefly con- 
fined to the physical powers of man and ani- 
mals. While the latter come to their perfection 
in a few hours or a few months after their birth, 
and reach the full development of their faculties 



MAN THE SUBJECT OF EDUCATION. 21 

without instruction, the former advances only 
as led forth by the hand of education. The 
fish glances through the water ; the quadruped 
roams over the land ; the birds put forth their 
varied melody ; and all this with no other tui- 
tion than that of instinct. God is their school- 
master, and his lessons are perfect. But man 
is subject to a different design. He cannot per- 
form the simple act of walking ; he cannot 
utter an articulate sound ; he cannot even pick 
up a pin, but through a process of teaching and 
training. If, then, instinct be the law of the 
animal creation, education is the law of man. 
It is the law of his physical nature, for by its 
instrumentality alone can his simplest and com-* 
monest faculties be unfolded. 



MAN THE SUBJECT OF EDUCATION IN RESPECT 
TO HIS INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES. 

Let us now consider the mental powers of man, 
as compared with the h/gher animal instincts. 
We begin by repeating Me remark, that while 
man has every thing to learn, the animal tribes 
need no instruction. The duck that is hatched 
in the barnyard by the hen, and associates only 
with companions that shun the water, marches 



22 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

off to the pool, and, in spite of warning and 
remonstrance from its guardian, plunges into 
the wave. Here it rides at ease, and manifests 
a perfect knowledge of the element, which it 
has never seen before. It puts forth its paddles, 
and manages them with all the dexterity of an 
experienced oarsman. 

The waterfowl that comes into existence on 
the reedy margin of some northern lake, stays 
for a time around its birthplace ; but the brief 
summer is soon passed, and the monitory voice 
of winter comes upon the breeze. The bird 
listens to the warning, and, springing high in 
air, departs for another clime. It needs no 
chart, it asks no compass. It mistakes not its 
course, it deviates not from its track. 

" There is a Power whose care 

Teaches its way along that pathless coast, 
The desert and illimitable air, 
Lone wandering, but not lost. " 

How different is it with man ! How slow is 
the process by which he acquires a knowledge 
of objects around him! He can only judge of 
distances after being taught by experience. He 
has no knowledge of places except so far as he 
acquires it. Every inch of his progress de- 
pends upon instruction; every idea is to be 
acquired ; all knowledge comes by tuition. The 



MAN THE SUBJECT; OF EDUCATION. 23 

Various powers of the mind, like those of the 
body, must be unfolded, trained, and enlarged 
by education- 
How long and patient then must be the study 
and toil of man before he can acquire that stretch 
of geographical knowledge, which would seem 
to be the free gift of Heaven to the migratory 
bird ! That feathered voyager ; untaught and 
often alone, performs a journey of a thousand 
or two thousand miles, and that in the space of 
a single week. It goes to a country where it 
has never been before : it pursues a track which 
is totally new. It flies from a winter which it 
has never tried, and, as if led by the gift of . 
prophecy, proceeds with the speed and direct- 
ness of an arrow, to find shelter in a region of 
perpetual summer. There is something in all 
this so wonderful, that many naturalists have 
been disposed to explain the seeming knowledge 
of birds by supposing it to be communicated by 
their parents. But this would imply an aptness 
to learn and a force of memory even more won- 
derful than the difficulty to be explained. Be- 
sides, we have instances which show this mys- 
terious power of instinct, and at the same time 
forbid the proposed explanation. The passen- 
ger pigeon is often taken from London to Paris, 
and, being let loose, goes straight back to its 



24 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

home — a distance of nearly four hundred miles. 
There are persons who will not believe in mira- 
cles ; but what miracle is equal to this ? And 
yet we know its reality. We cannot explain 
the process, but we see the fact. We see that 
instinct is a power which supersedes the neces- 
sity of instruction to the animal creation ; and 
that, while they are made to be guided by this 
mysterious gift, man is left to the guidance of 
experience and education. 

In human society, it is found alike convenient 
and necessary that men should be distributed 
into various occupations. Some must be farm- 
ers, some carpenters, some hunters, and some 
fishermen. Amongst animals, we observe a simi- 
lar diversity of pursuits. But it is to be re- 
marked, that, while the latter are instructed by 
nature in their various trades, and supplied by 
nature with the tools necessary to carry them 
on, mankind are obliged to serve a toilsome 
apprenticeship of many years, in order to ac- 
quire a competent knowledge of the several arts 
and professions to which they devote them- 
selves. 

Thus, we observe that the woodpecker, who 
is a natural carpenter, supplied with a tool 
that serves both as chisel and mallet, goes un- 
taught to the forest, selects his piece of timber, 



MAN THE SUBJECT OF EDUCATION. 25 

and forms his abode ; and all this without in- 
struction. The beaver, who is both carpenter 
and mason, architect and house-builder, fur- 
nished with teeth that perform the work of the 
axe and saw, and a tail which discharges the 
office of a trowel — he too performs his work, 
not by the plummet and the rule, not after the 
plans of a draughtsman, but, from the simple 
lessons of instinct. The bittern that wades 
along the pool is a fisherman that seldom fails 
to secure his prize, when he thrusts his spear 
into the water. The hawk is a sportsman that 
rarely stoops in vain upon his prey. The pen- 
sive heron, that stands while the tide is out in 
the briny mud, is an oyster-catcher by profes- 
sion. And all these, as soon as they are hatched 
and have taken to their wings, go straight to 
their several vocations, without a single lesson, 
and yet with a perfect understanding of them. 
How different is the lot of man ! How many 
are the trials, how long the practice, before he 
can become instructed in even the commonest 
pursuits by which a mere livelihood is to be 
obtained. 

In modern times, the art of committing ideas 

to paper has been extended and perfected by 

the art of printing. This has widened the field 

of knowledge, and offered facilities for educa- 

3 



26 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

tion unknown to former ages. In our day, a 
man cannot rise to a level with his fellow-men 
without being able to read. But how slow and 
tedious is the process by which the child is 
taught the alphabet, and then taught to combine 
syllables into words and words into sentences! 
How many months of toil are required to compass 
this common, but necessary branch of education ! 
It is not so with the brute creation. All the 
knowledge necessary to their existence, all that 
is required for the fulfilment of their duty and 
their destiny, is the gift of God. They need to 
learn no alphabet at the point of the penknife ; 
they need no admonition from the birch or the 
ferule ! 



MAN THE SUBJECT OP EDUCATION IN RESPECT 
TO HIS MORAL FACULTIES. 

We have spoken of man's physical nature, 
and shown that this is subject to the great law 
of education. We have noticed his intellectual 
powers, the exalted gift of reason, and shown 
that this, too, is unfolded by a process of tui- 
tion and training. But there is another most 
important point of considsration. Of all the 
various sentient beings which people this vast 
world, — man is the only one that has been per- 



MAN THE SUBJECT OF EDUCATION. 27 

mitted to taste of the tree of knowledge of good 
and evil. He is the only being that has a moral 
nature ; the only being that is capable of per- 
ceiving beanty in virtue and deformity in vice ; 
the only being that has a capacity to distinguish 
between truth and falsehood, between equity 
and injustice, between right and wrong; the 
only being in whose breast Heaven has estab- 
lished the holy tribunal of conscience. Man 
then alone, of all the creation, has moral facul- 
ties. 

It would be easy to illustrate this position, 
and show the difference between man and ani- 
mals in respect to moral perceptions. Let us 
take the golden rule, laid down by our Savior, 
which is the basis of justice between man and 
man — u do to another as you would have an- 
other do to you." This is no sooner presented 
to the human mind than its force is perceived 
and the obligation to obey it felt. But ani- 
mals are utterly destitute of a capacity for such 
perceptions. Might, with them, is the universal 
rule of right. The dog snatches the bone from 
the cat by the prescriptive privilege of mastery. 
The raven yields the carcass to the vulture; 
the vulture retires and waits till the feast of the 
sea eagle is done. The hungry jackal surren- 
ders his prey to the wolf; the wolf gives up his 



28 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

to the hyena. Thus, throughout the brute cre- 
ation, there is no recognition of any principle of 
justice; no judge or jury but force; no other 
rule of right than that the weak must yield to 
the strong. 

I once met with a beautiful and striking ex- 
ample of the perception of equity in a child, in 
reference to the seeming injustice on the part of 
the bald eagle, described by Wilson the orni- 
thologist. The reader is probably familiar with 
the famous passage, in which the author depicts' 
the king of birds as robbing the fish-hawk of 
the prey he has snatched from the bosom of the 
lake. The child, a boy of about seven years 
old, read the passage with great interest, and at 
first seemed only filled with the vivid picture 
presented to his imagination ; but after a little 
while he asked, with a countenance that be- 
spoke a painful emotion, " Was it not wicked 
for the eagle to get away the fish that the hawk 
had taken out of the water?" 

And man in his moral, as well as his other 
faculties, is also the subject of education. I 
have already quoted the words of the inspired 
proverbialist, affirming that the child trained up 
in the way in which he should go, will not 
depart from it in after years. And let it be 
remarked that he attaches no conditions; he 



MAN THE SUBJECT OF EDUCATION. 29 

adds no qualifications. The maxim is positive, 
and involves the doctrine that the moral nature 
of man may be formed and moulded by educa- 
tion. And this, though uttered three thousand 
years ago, corresponds with e very-day obser- 
vation. " Just as the twig is bent, the tree 's 
inclined," is a passage which illustrates the 
power of cultivation over the soul as well as the 
mind. The heart has often been compared, and 
with apt propriety, to a field, which may be 
cultivated like a garden, and, divested of nox- 
ious weeds, made redolent of flowers and fruit ; 
or, left to the wild luxuriance of passion, it may 
resemble the overgrown forest, whose thickets 
are infested by the adder and the scorpion. 

All this is well understood. It is also admit- 
ted that man's moral nature is the most exalted 
portion of his being. Virtue is superior to know- 
ledge ; the good man is ranked as superior to 
the great man. "An honest man's the noblest 
work of God." The Scriptures ever give the 
first place to the righteous man, the man of high 
moral character ; not to the man of genius or 
talent. The highest exercise of reason is in the 
discovery of moral truth. The intellect is thus 
made to be the pioneer, the servant of the soul. 

Yet the high gift of moral faculties is not 
bestowed without conditions. If a man use 
3* 



30 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

them wisely, they will ensure happiness; if 
otherwise, they will work out his ruin. With 
the power to perceive the beauty of virtue and 
the deformity of vice, he must follow the one 
if he would be happy, and shun the other at 
his peril. This is the weighty condition, and it 
cannot be resisted or evaded. The law is coiled 
around the soul of man, and while that soul 
endures it cannot be shaken off. It is the law 
of the moral universe, and is as pervading and 
inflexible as the principle of gravitation, which 
draws back to the earth a stone hurled into the 
air, while, at the same time, it reaches to the 
planets, and sustains the balance of the heavens. 
It is a law ordained by Omnipotence and admi- 
nistered by Omniscience. 

If, then, man has moral faculties; if these 
are the highest portion of his nature ; if upon 
their right exercise his happiness depends ; and 
if these are subject to the great law of educa- 
tion, how important, how supremely important, 
is that education ! I shall hereafter return to 
this topic, and attempt to explain why there is 
no systematic provision in our schools for moral 
culture, and why this most essential branch of 
education is too often neglected altogether, or 
left to the uncertain and capricious management 
of parents. For the present, I content myself 



MAN THE SUBJECT OF EDUCATION. 31 

with a few illustrations of the force of moral 
culture, with a view to impress upon the mind 
of the reader the fact that the heart is subject to 
the law of education ; that as the body may- be 
trained to health, grace, and vigor, as the intel- 
lect may be stored like a granary with the varied 
harvest of knowledge, so the soul may be im- 
bued with the love of truth, justice, and charity; 
that by proper culture the noxious weeds of 
passion may be checked or eradicated, and the 
fragrant flowers of virtue made to spread their 
immortal bloom over the spirit. 

Whoever has watched children with care, 
has noticed that any passion or feeling becomes 
stronger by repetition. In the first instance, it 
is dim and feeble ; in the second, it is more vivid 
and vigorous. By degrees it grows stronger ; 
and when, at length, it has become habitual, it 
is not only very apt and ready to return, but, 
like a vicious horse, it seizes the bit, and rushes 
forward in defiance of all control. Indulgence 
is the great principle of nutriment and culture 
to human passion. It is as the sun and rain 
and rich soil to vegetation. Thus, the indulged 
child becomes passionate, and gives himself up 
as easily to the gusty caprices of his humor as 
the seared leaf to the breeze. Thus, the savage, 
by dwelling constantly upon thoughts of war, 



32 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

cherishes the spirit of revenge, until it becomes 
the master of his being. Thus, the miser, by 
perpetual poring over his gains, tramples down 
every better feeling, that avarice may flourish, 
spread wide its branches, and overshadow the 
soul. 

It is the same with virtuous or vicious im- 
pulses ; exercise is the principle of culture. 
There is this difference, however, that the latter 
appear to be most prompt and ready to spring 
up in the heart, if some kindly influence do not 
interfere to check them and sow better seed in 
their place. 

Yes — for the smoothest lake hath waves 

Within its bosom, which will rise 
And revel when the tempest raves ; 

The cloud will come o'er gentlest skies ; 
And not a favored spot on earth 

The furrowing ploughman finds, but there 
The rank and ready weeds have birth, 

Sown by the winds to mock his care. 

****** 
The spark forever tends to flame ; 

The ray that quivers in the plash 
Of yonder river is the same 

That feeds the lightning's ruddy flash. 
The summer breeze that fans the rose, 

Or eddies down some flowery path, 
Is but the infant gale that blows 

To-morrow with the whirlwind's wrath. 

But while the evil passions are thus quick 
and eager to spring into exercise, and while 



MAN THE SUBJECT OF EDUCATION. 33 

even gentle and good feelings are prone to ex- 
cess, still, the principles of virtue are capable 
of being established in the heart. By being 
cherished, they become strong; by being founded 
in reason, they become fixed pillars, supporting 
the beautiful edifice of a consistent and just 
moral character — incomparably the most glori- 
ous spectacle to be seen on this earth. And let 
it be remembered, that as indulgence and exer- 
cise give activity and vigor to bad passions, so> 
on the contrary, if permitted to sleep, they be- 
come feeble and reluctant to rise into exertion. 
As the arm of a man tied up in a sling gradually 
loses strength and becomes averse to motion, so 
any human passion, laid long to rest, wakes 
with difficulty and rises with enfeebled vigor. . 



MAN DISTINGUISHED FROM ALL OTHER LIVING 
THINGS AS THE SUBJECT OP EDUCATION. 

Our slight survey of the progress of man from 
infancy to maturity, shows that in the develop- 
ment of his physical, mental, and moral facul- 
ties, he is wholly dependent upon education. A 
comparison of man with other animated beings 
shows that while he comes into existence with 
every thing to learn, they are endowed with an 



34 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

instinct which supplies them with all the arts 
and knowledge they require. Man then is made 
to he the subject of education ; and in this he 
stands in contrast to every other living thing. 
It is true that some animals have a limited 
capacity for instruction. You may teach the 
elephant to bear burthens ; you may train the 
ox to the plough, the horse to the harness, and 
the dog to the chase. You may thus render 
these animals subservient to the profit, the plea- 
sure, or the caprice of man; but you do not 
confer on them any art which improves their 
condition, increases their happiness, or raises 
them above their fellow-brutes. But it is other- 
wise, with man. Heaven has imparted to him 
the mighty gift of reason, and permitted him to 
taste of the immortal fruit yielded by the tree 
of knowledge of good and evil ; and endowed 
him with an independent and indestructible 
existence. He is destined to pass from one gra- 
dation to another as he ascends in the scale of 
knowledge; but experience is the process by 
which his faculties must be unfolded, education 
the ladder by which he must rise to the perfec- 
tion of his being. The Creator has bestowed 
various instincts on the brute creation, and 
these are so wonderful in their power that they 
seem, like scintillations struck out from tha 



MAN THE SUBJECT OF EDUCATION. 35 

Omniscient Mind, and loaned to animals during 
their limited existence. But these creatures are 
not free agents ; the knowledge they possess is 
not acquired, and is not their own. They are 
ever held by the leading-strings of instinct; 
they are ever under the conservatorship of 
Heaven. But man is free ; he acts from his 
own choice ; he exerts his own faculties. These 
are distinct and peculiar, setting him apart from 
the rest of creation, and marking him as the 
subject of a higher design and a loftier destiny. 
As the pyramids of Egypt have stood forth 
on the plains of Gizeh for four thousand years, 
the giants of human architecture, challenging 
and defying the rivalry of later ages ; so man 
is a monument reared beyond the approach of 
competition from Nature's other works. The 
instinct of animals is indeed marvellous, and 
might seem in some things to surpass the gift 
of reason. But compare the most skilful works 
of animals with those of man. Compare the 
village of the beaver with a human city. Com- 
pare its shapeless mounds of sticks and stones 
with one of our large towns, including its 
paved streets, illuminated at night by gas ; its 
lofty dwellings, many of them enriched and 
embellished with a thousand ingenious luxu- 
ries ; its diversified arts, its varied institutions, 



36 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

its libraries filled with exhaustless lore, its mer- 
chandise gathered from every quarter of the 
globe, its ships, which are taught to tread fear- 
lessly the paths of the deep ! Make this com- 
parison of the city of the beaver with the city 
of man, and you measure the distance between 
animal and human nature, between the force 
of instinct and the power of education ! 

We must observe, too, that while instinct 
marks the animal races as limited in their capa- 
city, it also marks them as limited in their 
duration; and that while education opens to 
man a boundless field of improvement, it shows 
that he is destined for an endless existence. 
God has assigned to every species of the animal 
creation a boundary beyond which they cannot 
pass. To them, there is no onward progress. 
They reach, not by gradual development, but at 
once, and without the aid of instruction, the 
perfection of their being. To this point nature 
says they may go, but no farther. Here shall 
their existence be stayed. No longing hopes, 
no yearning anticipations for something beyond, 
are kindled in the breast. Death is not to them 
a curtain, which may be lifted, and behind 
which they desire to look. It is an impenetra- 
ble veil, which stops their view, and forever 
intercepts their progress. 



MAN THE SUBJECT OF EDUCATION. 37 

But man first creeps, then walks. In infancy 
his intellect is feeble, and depends upon the im- 
perfect senses for its development. But reason 
soon unfolds its powers, and who can stay its 
march ? The imagination spreads its wing, and 
who can check its flight ? Man is distinguished 
from every thing else as a progressive being. 
Day by day he accumulates knowledge, day by 
day his faculties advance in power and develop- 
ment. He feels that his march is onward, and 
anticipation takes wing and rises to hopes of 
immortality. And God has thus written in 
man's very nature that these hopes are founded 
in truth. He has set his seal on man as coined 
for eternity. It is to deny the image and super- 
scription of one mightier than Caesar, to deny 
that this gradual development of man's powers, 
and the hopes that rise from the consciousness 
of such a process, point to immortality as his 
assured destiny. 



THE POWER OF EDUCATION OVER MAN NO NEW 
DOCTRINE. 

Suoh then is man — a creature composed of 
three natures, physical, intellectual, and moral, 
all united to form one being. Such is educa- 
tion — the great instrument by which the charac- 
4 



38 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

ter of man is to be formed — the instrument by 
which the powers of the body are to be trained, 
by which the mental faculties are to be devel- 
oped and expanded, by which the heart, the 
seat of the affections, is to be moulded. 

I am well aware that in reaching this result, 
we have only come to a point that has been 
long established. That man is designed to be 
the subject of education, as I have before re- 
marked, is a proposition too obvious to have 
been ever overlooked. I have already quoted a 
proverb, in use three thousand years ago, which 
shows that this truth was well understood then. 
In a later, but still a remote age, Philip of Mace- 
don, in his famous letter to Aristotle, asking him 
to become the preceptor of the infant Alexander, 
says, "I am less grateful that the gods have 
given me a son, than that he is born in the time 
of Aristotle." It is said of the emperor Theo- 
dosius that he used frequently to sit by his chil- 
dren Arcadius and Honorius whilst Arsenius 
taught them. He commanded them to show 
the same respect to their master that they would 
to himself; and surprising them once sitting, 
whilst Arsenius was standing, he took from 
them their princely robes, and did not restore 
them till a long time, nor even then but with 
much entreaty. So high a compliment to one 



MAN THE SUBJECT OF EDUCATION. 39 

who administered instruction, marked the va- 
lue set upon instruction itself. But, though it 
would be easy to multiply proofs that the power 
of education has been known in all ages, it is 
still true that the first instance of an attempt 
on the part of a sovereign to diffuse it over all 
classes of his subjects has been reserved for the 
present king of Prussia. He has indeed pro- 
vided ample means for the intellectual culture 
of youth ; but, with a Jesuitical skill in human 
nature, he takes care to weave in with the very 
texture of the mind and heart, a love of mon- 
archy and loyalty to a king. And let it be re- 
marked, too, that education in Prussia is as 
much a matter of conscription as levies for the 
army. The children are as sternly required to 
attend the schools and go through the lessons, 
as the recruit to appear on parade or submit to 
the drill. 

While thus we perceive the despotism of the 
Prussian monarch, we cannot deny that he has 
taken an enlightened course to reach his object. 
He seeks to rule his people through knowledge, 
and not, like other sovereigns, through igno- 
rance. His scheme is founded upon the doc- 
trine that man is formed by education; that 
such is the plastic, yielding, impressible cha- 
racter of human nature in early life, that skilful 



40 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

teaching may mould it to almost any shape. 
He is willing, therefore, to enlighten his subjects 
by the diffusion of knowledge, taking care, 
however, to braid in with the strands of learn- 
ing ideas of the necessity of monarchical insti- 
tutions and the duty of loyal allegiance to the 
crown. The system involves the doctrine that 
early impressions may control even an enlight- 
ened intellect; that the associations of child- 
hood may be so multiplied and netted over the 
mind as to lead captive the giant powers of 
mature manhood ; and that an instructed peo- 
ple, thus tied to the car of despotism, while 
they will be much more powerful, will be 
equally submissive with the ignorant and unin- 
structed slave. It is, therefore, a scheme found- 
ed in a deep knowledge of human character, 
and displaying a sagacity beyond the scope of 
ordinary kings. It is, however, a bold experi- 
ment, and the world will look on with interest 
for the result. Time will determine whether 
an instructed people, even though trained to 
the yoke of monarchy, will continue to bend 
the neck and toil submissively at the plough. 

But, though the Prussian sovereign has un- 
dertaken to see that education is. diffused over 
the whole community throughout his domin- 
ions, he is not the first despot that has been a 



MAN THE SUBJECT OF EDUCATION. 41 

patron of learning. In the darkest periods of 
history, kings have sought to fortify their thrones 
by collecting men of learning around them, 
and by establishing colleges and universities, 
founded on such principles, however, as to ren- 
der them little more than engines of state. And 
while a pretended love of learning has been 
thus displayed; while the light of knowledge 
has been kindled in the college, and has shed 
its influence on a select number, the people at 
large have been sedulously kept in the darkness 
and the gloom of ignorance. 

But the crowned despots of the Eastern Hemi- 
sphere have not furnished the only barriers to 
the progress of general education. Priestcraft, 
in almost every age, has sought to sway man- 
kind, by keeping them in ignorance, or, what is 
worse, by subjecting them to the influence of 
superstitious fiction. There have been politi- 
cians, too, who, in their eagerness for power, 
have maintained the doctrine that the mass of 
mankind were happier if left in a state of igno- 
rance. But it will be perceived that in all 
these cases, the power of education, in the form- 
ation of human character, is fully admitted and 
understood. The despot fears instruction, for 
it would teach the people their rights, and give 
them strength to overturn his dominion. The 
4* 



42 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

crafty priest, who seeks to exercise a harsher 
tyranny than that of kings, a tyranny over the 
mind, resists education, for it would show his 
superstitions to be the mere phantoms of a base 
juggler. And the politician, who " deems igno- 
rance to be bliss," is obviously seduced into the 
notion that the mass of mankind are made to be 
slaves, merely by his wish to use them as such ; 
thus admitting that ignorance tends to rivet the 
chains of bondage, and knowledge to cut them 
asunder. 



INFERENCES. 

We have come then to this conclusion, that it 
is the law of man's nature that his physical, 
moral, and intellectual faculties must be un- 
folded by education ; that man without educa- 
tion is a savage, but little elevated above the 
brutes that perish ; while by means of educa- 
tion, he may be exalted to a rank but little lower 
than the angels. By proper treatment, the body 
may be trained to grace, activity, and endu- 
rance ; by instruction, the mind may be enriched 
with exhaustless stores of knowledge and wis- 
dom ; by education, the evil passions may be 
laid to habitual repose; while the nobler a ad 
more generous qualities may be developed and 



MAN THE SUBJECT OF EDUCATION. 43 

brought into such prompt and habitual action 
as to pervade the whole character. Education, 
then, may be the instrument of rendering the 
highest and most exalted portions of our nature 
triumphant over the grosser attributes of flesh 
and blood. 

It is therefore, the lever, and the only- 
lev er, that can lift mankind from the native 
mire of ignorance. That lever is put into our 
hands, and how shall we use it ? We live in a 
civilized community. Every individual among 
us can understand the value of that culture 
which raises a man from the savage to the 
civilized state. Is it not the duty of every per- 
son to use his utmost efforts to carry the bene- 
fits of this culture to each member of society? 
I speak not now exclusively to the parent. To 
him I shall hereafter address myself with a par- 
ticular and earnest desire to win his ear. But 
I speak to the community at large. Is there a 
member of society who can look on the rising 
generation and say that he has no interest in 
this matter ? If so, then is he self-exiled from 
his race, cut off from all sympathy with his 
kindred and his kind. That man who is thus 
cold and thus indifferent must be wrapped in 
the gloom of miserable ignorance, or encased in 
the triple mail of selfishness. Like ice in a 



44 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

refrigerator, surrounded by a non-conducting 
layer of charcoal, to shut out the chance of 
being influenced by the breath of summer, he is 
bound in the chill security of that philosophy 
which lays down its code of life in a single 
dogma— take care of no. i.! There let him 
rest. To such I speak not. I speak to those 
who acknowledge and feel the obligation to pro- 
mote the best interests of the whole community, 
as far as they are able. And this does not per- 
mit a regard only to the present hour, but it 
demands the exercise of that high gift of reason, 
which enables us to read the future by a peru- 
sal of the past. And whether we look to the 
present or coming generation, is not education 
one of those great interests which wisdom calls 
upon us to cherish ? Is it not the grand instru- 
ment by which the human race must be ex- 
alted'? Is it not the power, indicated by the 
plain teachings of nature, by which man is to 
be redeemed from ignorance ? And is there any 
one who is willing to take upon himself the 
trust conferred upon every member of civilized 
society, and lay it down again, having done 
nothing for this great cause ? 

If our view of this subject be right ; if educa- 
tion is the law of man's nature, as instinct is 
the law of animals ; if man is marked as the 



MAN THE SUBJECT OF EDUCATION. 45 

subject of a peculiar design, a design which 
places him in contrast to every other living 
thing ; and if this design be that his faculties 
are to be developed, his character formed, the 
end of his being secured, only through educa- 
tion ; how plain is our duty ? If we seek to cul- 
tivate a plant with success, we proceed accord- 
ing to the design of its Maker. We learn its 
nature, and follow this as the only sure guide. 
Now God has written on man, in letters not to 
be mistaken, This being is made to be educated. 
Without education, he is a savage ; by its aid y 
he may be exalted to a station but little lower than 
that of the angels. What then is the duty of 
rulers — of those who are charged with the great 
interests of society? Can they neglect this 
obvious means of improving the condition of 
mankind without sin ? Nature and providence 
point out the method by which the human race 
is to be exalted. No one can overlook or mis- 
take it. Ought not education, then, to be laid at 
the foundation of our political system ? Ought 
not provision to be made by every government, 
in every country, for the instruction of all the 
people in that knowledge which is necessary to 
enable them to form just opinions upon all the 
great questions of life ? In our country, where 
the government is placed in the hands of the 



46 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

people, ought we not especially to make ar- 
rangements for the education of every memher 
of society to this extent 1 In the choice of legis- 
lators, ought we not carefully to select only 
those who entertain just views on this subject ? 

I am afraid there is great error, or at least 
dangerous indifference, even afh'ong enlightened 
men, as to this matter. The people ought to 
consider the point well, and exact of those who 
are charged with the business of legislation a 
conscientious and wise performance of their 
high duty in respect to education. 

Let us, for a moment, consider the influence 
exercised by the legislature over the community. 
This body consists of the delegates of the peo- 
ple. It is regarded as the assembled wisdom 
of the state. The acts of the assembly go 
home to every man's mind, and produce their 
effect. If they enact a law, it lays its heavy 
impress upon the whole mass of society. Even 
in despotic countries, where the people look 
upon the lawgiver with aversion, and fear the 
government as an adversary, even there, the 
legislative edicts fashion the manners of the 
people, establish the standard of morals, and 
become the mould into which the opinions of 
society are cast. If such be the power of legis- 
lation in a monarchical country, what must it 



MAN THE SUBJECT OF EDUCATION. 47 

be here, where it flows from the people them- 
selves 1 If society can be shaped by authority 
which it hates and resists, how much more will 
it be influenced where it consents and approves. 
The people of this country do, in fact, look with 
profound respect to the acts of their legislators. 
They will be slow to despise what their assem- 
bled counsellors approve. If you move the 
heart, the remotest pulse in the human frame 
beats in unison with it. The legislature is to 
the people as the central organ of vitality to the 
life-blood of the body. It can, if it will, give a 
quickening impulse to the cause of education, 
which will reach every hill and valley, every 
house and hamlet, in the state. 

Let the lawgivers of the land speak, then, 
and the people will hear ! There is an echo in 
a legislative hall which dies not. Its edicts are 
whispered from hill to hill, from heart to heart, 
and still continue to live when those who framed 
them are sleeping in the dust. The spirit of 
the pilgrims is still breathing upon us from their 
statutes. The laws framed by this generation 
will go down to have their influence on the 
next. Let the people, then, who are now on 
the active stage of life, look to this subject, and 
call upon their rulers to discharge their trust on 
this point with fidelity ! 



48 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

Again, if our view of this matter be right ; if 
it is the design of the Creator that man be the 
subject of education; if through enlightened 
education alone he can be led forward in the 
path of his duty and his destiny ; how iniqui- 
tous are all those schemes of government which 
keep any class of men in designed ignorance. 
The light of heaven is not more the right of all 
than the light of knowledge ; and a scheme to 
appropriate to a privileged class of persons the 
glorious rays of the sun, while all beside are to 
be wrapped in the chill shadows of night, would 
not be more a conspiracy against the natural 
rights of man, than is any system which would 
shut out from the view of the people at large 
the intellectual light imparted by education. 
Yet such has been, and still is, the very basis 
of most of the political institutions of the East- 
ern Hemisphere. From the founding of the 
first empire in the valley of the Euphrates, to 
the present hour, despots have dreaded the dif- 
fusion of knowledge, as they would the diffusion 
of offensive weapons. They know that an en- 
lightened and instructed people are difficult to 
be subjected to unlawful power. They know 
that the ignorant are weak, and easily made the 
slaves of authority. They have therefore con- 
spired iu all ages to thwart the design of provi- 



MAN THE SUBJECT OF EDUCATION. 49 

deuce in the formation of man, by checking the 
progress of knowledge, and restricting the boun- 
daries of science to a narrow and selfish circle 
of purchased and pensioned adherents. 

The truth is, that knowledge is common pro- 
perty, and those who possess it are bound to 
distribute it for the benefit of others. Those 
who, for any selfish end, hoard it, or throw 
obstacles in the way of its diffusion, commit a 
crime against their fellow-men. Above all, 
those who would deny to any class of persons 
the benefits of education, that they may the 
more easily govern them, engage in a base con- 
spiracy against the rights of humanity. 

A system Which would enslave the body by 
cheating the soul; which keeps the mind and 
spirit in darkness or poverty, and holds human 
beings down, generation after generation, as 
near to the brute creation as possible, instead 
of elevating them in the scale of being, as is the 
obvious duty of all ; is in every point of view an 
institution opposed to the evident designs of the 
Creator, and in contravention of the true des- 
tiny of man. It places itself in the very path 
of providence, and seeks to stay its march. It 
is a battery erected to resist and defy the mani- 
fest intentions of Heaven. Such schemes can- 
not prosper. That Being who said, Let there 
5 



50 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

be light, and there was light, has given forth 
knowledge as the birthright of man, and he will 
show, in his own good time, that such gross 
wrongs against human nature cannot be per- 
petuated. 

It would appear that, in all ages, and in 
every clime, ignorance is identified with slave- 
ry, and knowledge with freedom. The cause 
of education, then, is the cause of liberty. Na- 
ture and providence point it out as the great 
instrument of human improvement. Let its 
promotion, therefore, ever mark the policy of 
our free American states. Let it ever be main- 
tained in our legislative halls that the instruc- 
tion of youth is a subject of paramount interest. 
Let it be understood that the people are not 
satisfied to rest where they are, but are looking 
to a constantly advancing state of society, to a 
higher and still higher standard of moral and 
intellectual culture. Let each individual use 
his influence to elevate public sentiment on this 
great subject. Let us all endeavor to give to the 
efforts of our school committees a loftier pitch ; 
to inspire into the teacher a more generous am- 
bition, and stimulate his exertions by giving him 
a still nobler estimate of his high vocation. Let 
us attempt to move every individual in the com- 
munity to a better sense of his obligations to 
-aid in the cause of public instruction. 



MAN THE SUBJECT OF EDUCATION. 51 

EDUCATION FORMS INDIVIDUAL CHARACTER. 

We have laid down the position that educa- 
tion forms human character. This is not only 
true as a matter of theory, but of practice ; not 
true only in general, as regarding classes of 
men, but as regarding every individual. I do 
not mean to affirm that all are moulded by 
what is called education. I use the word in 
that larger sense, which includes all the influ- 
ences which aid in the development of our 
various faculties. Nor do I mean to touch the 
question of innate ideas, or the unseen impulses 
which may, and doubtless do, arise from provi- 
dential influences. There may be a benignant 
power watching over the orphan, and supply- 
ing, by holy suggestions, the place of parents. 
There may be a power in the course of provi- 
dence corrective of the mistakes made by the 
natural guardians of children. As the wind is 
tempered to the shorn lamb, so there may be 
inward light given by Heaven to those whom 
society would leave in darkness. But however 
this may be, our course of duty is plain. The 
swaying tide may give some lee-way to the 
ship, but the mariner may not therefore neglect 
to spread the sail or guide the helm. Revela- 
tion, experience, common sense, teach us that 



52 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

education is the great fashioner of human cha- 
racter, and we are bound to act accordingly. 

If this then be true, — if education forms indi- 
vidual character, — it is important for every pa- 
rent to inquire himself, and with special refe- 
rence to his own children, at what period of 
life it operates with most force, and what are 
its most efficient engines. 



THE BASIS OF CHARACTER IS USUALLY LAID IN 
EARLY LIFE. 

It is obvious that the faculties of man, com- 
mencing at birth, proceed in their development 
through several stages, before they reach matu- 
rity. These are usually denominated infancy, 
childhood, and youth. We may consider these 
as embracing the first seventeen years of life, and 
remark that during this period the foundation 
of the physical, mental, and moral character is 
usually laid. This fact arises from the suscep- 
tibility of our nature during this portion of our 
existence. We are then like plaster, prepared 
by the moulder, soft and impressible, taking 
forms and images from every thing wc may 
chance to touch. But as this plaster soon grows 
hard, and retains ever after the traces made 
upon it, so the impressions made upon youth 



MAN THE SUBJECT OF EDUCATION. 53 

become indurated in manhood. The imitative 
and reflective tendencies of childhood and youth, 
operating on their plastic nature, also render 
this a decisive period of life in the formation of 
character. Children mark the peculiarities of 
those around, and incline to copy them. They 
are like mirrors, readely catching reflections on 
every hand, and often retaining traces of the 
images casually thrown upon them, for the 
remainder of life. 

I am aware that there is a great difference in 
the character of children as to their ductility. 
Some are facile in their dispositions ; others are 
more obstinate and unyielding. But these di- 
versities do not affect the substantial truth of 
the remark, that the general outline of every 
man's character is formed by education, and 
that too within the first seventeen years of his 
life. It is within this period that the basis of his 
physical constitution is laid, the frame- work of 
the understanding formed, the leading features 
of the moral character decided. And however 
much these may all seem to depend upon na- 
ture, they depend much more upon influences 
which are brought to bear upon them at this 
plastic period of life. 

5* 



54 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 



PROVISION OF PROVIDENCE THAT THE CONTROL- 
LING LESSONS OF LIFE SHALL BE GIVEN BY 
PARENTS, 

If man is made to be the subject of educa- 
tion, and if the decisive stage in which he is 
most easily moulded is that of early life, how 
wise and benignant is the course of providence 
as displayed in this design. In the dawn of 
existence, man is to receive a bias for life. It 
is at this period that he is most ductile. It 
is at this period that he is formed to obtain the 
most lasting impressions, and acquire those 
trains of thought and feeling which will shape 
his future fortunes. And what seminary is 
provided for him 1 To what teacher is he com- 
mitted 1 The seminary is home ; the teacher is 
the parent. What spot on earth so likely to 
abound in genial influences as the fireside? 
What schoolmaster so likely to teach with 
blended wisdom and kindness as the parent ? 

It is plainly a part of the great scheme of the 
Creator, in making man the subject of educa- 
tion, that the fireside shall be the seminary in 
which the controlling lessons of life are to be 
taught. It is obvious that in placing the power 
of fashioning the characters of their children for 
good or ill in the hands of parents, Heaven pre- 



MAN THE SUBJECT OF EDUCATION. 55 

sumes upon their fidelity to such a trust, and 
will hold them strictly accountable for its dis- 
charge. What parent will at the same time 
put at hazard the happiness of his child and 
disappoint the calculations of providence ? 

The truth is that God has marked out a noble 
scheme for man's improvement. This is so dis- 
tinctly traced by the workings of nature that 
mankind cannot overlook it. Infancy, child- 
hood, youth, all advancing to maturity by the 
process of education, place the design of the 
Creator before every parent and every member 
of society. Let parents, then, take up and fol- 
low out this design ; let the community at large 
engage with providence in carrying to comple- 
tion its benignant intentions towards mankind. 
Let our public men, who have almost a 
creative power over the society for whom they 
act, — let these cooperate in the great work of 
human improvement. As man comes from the 
hand of his Creator marked as a creature to be 
educated, let those who are charged with the 
public interests consider themselves bound to 
fulfil the appointment of Heaven, and see that 
those over whom they exercise control, are edu- 
cated wisely. 



56 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

THE FIRESIDE. 

As the infant begins to discriminate between 
the objects around, it soon discovers one coun- 
tenance that ever smiles upon it with peculiar 
benignity. When it wakes from its sleep, there 
is one watchful form ever bent over its cradle. 
If startled by some unhappy dream, a guardian 
angel seems ever ready to soothe its fears. If 
cold, that ministering spirit brings it warmth , 
if hungry, she feeds it ; if in pain, she relieves 
it ; if happy, she caresses it. In joy or sorrow, 
in weal or woe, she is the first object of its 
thoughts. Her presence is its heaven. The 
mother is the deity of infancy ! 

Now reflect a moment upon the impressible, 
the susceptible character of this little being, and 
consider the power of this mother in shaping 
the fine clay that is entrusted to her hands. 
Consider with what authority, with what effect, 
one so loved, so reverenced, so adored, may 
speak ! 

Thus, in the budding spring of life, infancy 
is the special charge, and subject to the special 
influence, of the mother. But it soon advances 
to childhood. Hitherto, it has been a creature 
of feeling ; it now becomes a being of thought. 
The intellectual eye opens upon the world. It 



MAN THE SUBJECT- OF EDUCATION. 57 

looks abroad, and imagination spreads its fairy- 
wing. Every thing is beautiful, every thing is 
wonderful. Curiosity is perpetually alive, and 
questions come thick and fast to the lisping 
lips. What is this? Who made it? How? 
When !■ Wherefore ? These are the eager in- 
terrogations of childhood. At this period, the 
child usually becomes fond of the society of his 
father. He can answer his questions. He can 
unfold the mysteries which excite the wonder 
of the childish intellect. He can tell him tales 
of what he has seen, and lead the child forth in 
the path of knowledge. The great characteris- 
tic of this period of life is an eager desire to 
obtain new ideas. New ideas to a child are 
bright as gold to the miser or gems to a fair 
lady. The mind of childhood is constantly 
beset with hunger and thirst for knowledge. It 
appeals to the father, for he can gratify these 
burning desires. 

How naturally does such a relation beget in 
the child both affection and reverence ! He 
sees love in the eyes of the father, he hears it 
in the tones of his voice ; and the echo of the 
young heart gives back love for love. He 
discovers, too, that his father has knowledge, 
which to him is wonderful. He can tell why 
the candle goes out, and though he may not be 



58 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

able to satisfy the child where the beautiful 
flame is gone, he can at least explain why it 
has vanished, and how it may be recalled. He 
can tell why the fire burns, why the stream 
flows, why the trees bow in the breeze. He 
can tell where the rain comes from, and unfold 
the mysteries of the clouds. He can explain 
the forked lightning and the rolling thunder. 
He can unravel the mighty mystery of the sun, 
the moon, and the stars. He can point beyond 
to that Omnipotent Being who in goodness and 
wisdom has made them all. 

What a sentiment, compounded of love and 
reverence towards the father, is thus engen- 
dered in the bosom of the child ! What a power 
to instruct, to cultivate, to mould that gentle 
being is thus put into the hands of this parent ! 
How powerful is admonition from his lips, how 
authoritative his example ! The father is the 
deity of childhood. The feeling of the child 
towards the father is the beginning of that sen- 
timent, which expands with the expanding 
intellect, and, rising to heaven on the wing of 
faith, bows in love and reverence before the 
Great Parent of the universe. 

Let us go forward to the period of youth. 
The mother holds the reins of the soul ; the 
father sways the dominion of the intellect, I 



MAN THE SUBJECT OF EDUCATION. 59 

do not affirm that there is an exact or complete 
division of empire between the parents. Both 
exert a powerful influence over the mind and 
heart. I mean only to state generally that the 
natural power of the mother is exercised rather 
over the affections, and that of the father over 
the mind. It is a blended sway, and if exerted 
in unison it has the force of destiny. There 
may be cases in which children may seem to 
set parental authority at defiance; but these 
instances, if they actually occur, are rare, and 
may be regarded as exceptions, which are said 
to prove the rule. Remember the impressible 
character of youth, and consider its relation to 
the parent. Is not the one like the fused metal, 
and has not the other the power to impress upon 
it an image ineffaceable as the die upon steel 1 
Nay, is it not matter of fact, attested by fami- 
liar observation, that children come forth from 
the hands of their parents stamped with a cha- 
racter that seldom deserts them in after life'? 
Are they not impressed with manners, tastes, 
habits and opinions, which circumstances may 
modify, but never efface? If the countenance 
of the child often bears the semblance of the 
father or mother, do we not still more frequently 
discover in the offspring the moral impress of 
the parent ? 



60 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 



Is it not true, then, that parents are the law- 
givers of their children? Does not a mother's 
counsel, does not a father's example, cling to 
the memory, and haunt us through life ? Do 
we not often find ourselves subject to habitual 
trains of thought, and if we seek to discover the 
origin of these, are we not insensibly led back, 
by some beaten and familiar track, to the pater- 
nal threshold ? Do we not often discover some 
home-chiseled grooves in our minds, into which 
the intellectual machinery seems to slide as by 
a sort of necessity? Is it not, in short, a pro- 
verbial truth that the controlling lessons of 
life are given beneath the parental roof? I 
know, indeed, that wayward passions spring up 
in early life, and, urging us to set authority 
at defiance, seek to obtain the mastery of 
the heart. But, though struggling for liberty 
and license, the child is shaped and moulded 
by the parent. The stream that bursts from 
the fountain, and seems to rush forward head- 
long and self-willed, still turns hither and 
thither, according to the shape of its mother 
earth over which it flows. If an obstacle is 
thrown across its path, it gathers strength, 
breaks away the barrier, and again bounds for- 
ward. It turns, and winds, and proceeds on its 
course, till it reaches its destiny in the sea. 



MAN THE SUBJECT OF EDUCATION. 61 

But in all this, it has shaped its course and fol- 
lowed out its career, from babbling infancy at 
the fountain to its termination in the great 
reservoir of waters, according to the channel 
which its parent earth has provided. Such is 
the influence of a parent over his child. It has 
within itself a will, and at its bidding it goes 
forward ; but the parent marks out its track. 
He may not stop its progress, but he may guide 
its course. He may not throw a dam across its 
path, and say to it, hitherto mayest thou go, 
and no farther; but he may turn it through 
safe, and gentle, and useful courses, or he may 
leave it to plunge over wild cataracts, or lose 
itself in some sandy desert, or collect its strength 
into a torrent, but to spread ruin and desolation 
along its borders. 

The fireside, then, is a seminary of infinite 
importance. It is important because it is uni- 
versal, and because the education it bestows, 
being woven in with the woof of childhood, 
gives form and color to the whole texture of 
life. There are few who can receive the honors 
of a college, but all are graduates of the hearth. 
The learning of the university may fade from 
the recollection ; its classic lore may moulder in 
the halls of memory. But the simple lessons 
of home, enamelled upon the heart of childhood, 
6 



62 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

defy the rust of years, and outlive the more 
mature but less vivid pictures of after days, 
So deep, so lasting, indeed, are the impressions 
of early life, that you often see a man in the 
imbecility of age holding fresh in his recollec- 
tion the events of childhood, while all the wide 
space between that and the present hour is a 
blasted and forgotten waste. You have per- 
chance seen an old and half-obliterated portrait, 
and in the attempt to have it cleaned and re- 
stored, you may have seen it fade away, while 
a brighter and more perfect picture, painted 
beneath, is revealed to view. This portrait, 
first drawn upon the canvass, is no inapt illus- 
tration of youth ; and though it may be con- 
cealed by some after design, still the original 
traits will shine through the outward picture, 
giving it tone while fresh, and surviving it in 
decay. 

Such is the fireside — the great institution fur- 
nished by providence for the education of man. 
Having ordained that man should receive his 
character from education, it was also ordained 
that early instruction should exert a decisive 
influence on character, and that during this 
important period of existence, children should 
be subject to the charge of their parents. The 
sagacity and benevolence displayed in this de- 



MAN THE SUBJECT OF EDUCATION. 63 

sign afford a striking manifestation of that wis- 
dom and goodness which we behold in all the 
works of God. It appears that, in every stage 
of society, parental education adjusts itself to 
the wants of children. In the savage state, 
where there is no division of property, no com- 
plicated system of laws and relations, no reli- 
gion, save the naked idea of a God who rewards 
the good and punishes the wicked, education 
has a narrow scope ; but such as is needed is 
supplied. As society advances into civilization, 
duties multiply and responsibilities increase; 
there is then a demand for higher moral and 
intellectual culture. Providence has foreseen 
and provided for this necessity, for with the 
advance of refinement and knowledge the family 
circle is drawn closer together, and the solici- 
tude of parents for their children and their influ- 
ence over them are proportion ably increased. 
Thus, while in a rude age children are left, 
almost like the untutored animals, to make 
their own way, when knowledge is diffused, 
and the light of religion spread abroad, then it 
is that enlightened education becomes neces- 
sary, then it is that parental education becomes 
vigilant, and then it is that children are most 
completely subjected to the influence of pa- 
rents. 



64 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

In a state of society like ours, it involves a 
fearful responsibility, but we cannot shrink 
from the fact : parents usually decide the cha- 
racter of their offspring. It is so ordained of 
Heaven ; children will obey the lessons given 
them at the fireside. As the stone hurled from 
the sling takes its direction and finds its resting- 
place at the bidding of the arm that wields it, 
so the child goes forward, and finds its grave 
in peace or sorrow, according to the impulse 
given at the fireside. 



OBLIGATIONS OF PARENTS. 

The mythology of the ancient Greeks taught 
the existence of a goddess, who exerted a pow- 
erful influence over mankind ; she was esteem- 
ed the arbitress of success, and her name was 
Fortune. She was represented as holding two 
rudders, with one of which she guided the ship 
of prosperity, with the other, that of adversity. 
These emblems indicated her power over good 
and evil ; but this seems generally to have been 
exercised in a benignant manner. The same 
religion also taught the existence of those in- 
exorable sisters called Fates. They are repre- 
sented as goddesses of human destiny and in- 



OBLIGATIONS OF PARENTS. 65 

dividual fortune, both in life and death. The 
Mahometans believe that all events are deter- 
mined beforehand, and come to pass according 
to a necessity, which they call Destiny. 

Now, parents are to their children, fortune, 
fate and destiny. They possess and exercise 
over their offspring an influence almost equiva- 
lent to that fancied to belong to these heathen 
powers. It should be remembered that this in- 
fluence is for good or ill ; that it must result in 
promoting the happiness or misery of those who 
are subjected to its action. The affection of 
parents for their children would seem to be a 
sufficient motive for using their power wisely. 
But it is easy to present other motives, and those 
which must come with emphasis, to every pa- 
rent's heart. The fact that God has made the 
human race to be educated, to receive their bias 
for life from early impressions, and has placed 
children, during this period, under the special 
charge of parents, is sufficient proof that he de- 
signed to lay upon these the serious responsi- 
bility of deciding the character of their children, 
of determining their fortune, of spinning for 
them the thread of fate, of planning out their 
destiny. 

If any one is disposed to think that I state 
the point too strongly, let me ask him to con- 
6* 



66 FIRESIDE EDUCATION, 

sider what those things are which will gene- 
rally ensure success in life and happiness here- 
after. I think these may be briefly stated as 
follows : First, a good constitution ; second, 
good moral principles, with a love of truth and 
justice ; third, religious principles ; fourth, good 
intellectual culture; fifth, good habits; sixth, 
pure tastes ; seventh, good manners. Now let 
me ask, is there any thing here which the pa- 
rent may not, in ordinary cases, secure to his 
child ? It may be supposed that a good consti- 
tution is not at the command of the parent. 
But let him devote his attention to this as a point 
of duty, as a thing of high interest; let him 
pursue it with the sagacity, practical good sense, 
and energy with which he pursues his ordi- 
nary business ; and in nine cases out of ten he 
will secure his object. The truth is, that feeble 
constitutions are in most cases the result of 
neglect or mismanagement. The parent, there- 
fore, may usually decide the physical charac- 
ter of his child for life. And may he not, if 
he will use the proper means, decide his moral 
and intellectual character also? Is there any 
thing in the catalogue we have just given, of 
things necessary to win happiness here and 
hereafter, that the parent may not ensure to his 
child 1 How strong then is the obligation of the 



OBLIGATIONS OF PARENTS. 67 

parent to seek out and earnestly employ those 
means, which may thus favorably determine 
the destiny of those whom God has given him ! 

There is another argument on this point 
which may not be without its influence. In 
the earlier portion of maturity, we are apt to 
think almost entirely of ourselves ; but as life 
advances, and children cluster around us, we 
transfer our hearts to them, and they become 
the centres of almost all our hopes and fears. 
It is for them we toil ; it is for them we rise 
early and sit up late ; it is for them we watch 
and pray. They become our second selves, 
and we look forward to their prospects with 
an interest as keen and anxious as if these 
prospects were our own. Will not the parent 
perceive that if he would cherish the happiness, 
or forestall the misery, that may come from the 
success or failure of his child, he must use the 
influence wisely which he possesses over his 
body, his intellect, and his soul ? 

The bringing up of children, then, is a matter 
of serious responsibility to the parent, and it 
may be supposed that all who sustain the pa- 
rental relation will be anxious to inform them- 
selves of the best means of training up their 
offspring in the way in which they should go. 
Without pretending to possess any special wis- 



68 FIRESIDE EbttCATloNi 

dom on this subject, I shall venture to make 
a few suggestions in regard to parental edu» 
cation and instruction. As these are the result 
Of observation and reflection, and have been 
tested, to some extent, by practical application, 
I hope they may prove useful. After having 
noticed the characteristics of children, I shall 
in the first place offer some remarks upon their 
government, and shall then treat of the proper 
mode of securing health, and inculcating reli- 
gion, morals and manners. I shall not attempt 
to pursue a very philosophical method, but shall 
introduce the topics rather according to the or- 
der in which they naturally rise to claim the 
attention of the parent, than according to any 
analogies in the topics themselves. 

Before I close this article, let me present a 
few other points of consideration to parents. 
It has been often remarked that childhood and 
youth are the happiest periods of existence. 
Whether this be true in point of fact, or not, it 
is obvious that the Creator designed that youth 
should be a season of enjoyment. In a state 
of health, children and youth are invariably 
happy, unless there is some extraneous circum- 
stance to prevent. The body thrills with agree- 
able sensations ; the mind sparkles with bright 
and pleasant thoughts, as the ripples of a stream 



OBLIGATIONS OF PARENTS. 69 

flash in the rays of the morning sim. The heart, 
like the bubbling fountain, wells forth with an 
unceasing current of joyous emotions. Such 
is the tenor of young life, undisturbed by cross 
influences. 

As children are, therefore, made for happiness, 
let parents consider the duty of following out 
this design of the Creator. In this matter, God 
has set them an example, and will they not fol- 
low it? I know, indeed, that childhood and 
youth are the periods in which knowledge is to 
be acquired, the temper to be disciplined, habits 
of industry and perseverance to be established, 
principles of truth and duty to be inculcated. 
And I know that the duty of parents in this 
respect will often make it necessary to demand 
onerous exertion and painful self-denial of chil- 
dren. I know, too, that the condition of many 
parents is such that they need the labor of their 
children to assist in sustaining the family. But 
all this is, by no means, incompatible with the 
happiness of children. Bodily and mental la- 
bor, suited to the age and capacity of youth, 
is a source of immediate happiness, and after 
pleasure. Lessons of self-denial, wisely and 
kindly enforced, though the heart be pained 
for the time, are sources of future satisfaction. 
As the crushed rose gives forth the sweetest 



TO FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

fragrance, so the chastened heart exhibits and 
enjoys the purest pleasure. Parents are, there- 
fore, by no means to sacrifice the proper edu- 
cation of their children, under the idea of inter- 
fering with their enjoyment. 

But I wish distinctly to present to the reader's 
attention the fact that children remain under 
parental guardianship for twenty-one years, 
and that this, with the majority, is more than 
half the entire period of human existence. Let 
parents, then, do what they can consistently, 
with a sound regard to controlling points of 
duty, to make that large portion of life happy 
which is subjected to their special influence. 
Let them not, under an idea of government, 
over-govern ; let them not, under the notion of 
educating, over-educate ; let them not, under 
the idea of training them to labor, overtask their 
children. Let it be understood that the child 
has a right to be happy so long as he remains 
under parental tutelage ; and let it be remem- 
bered that if the parent interfere with this 
right, beyond what is demanded by a due re- 
gard to the child's future prosperity, he uses the 
power of a despot, with the spirit of a tyrant. 

I will venture to make another suggestion to 
parents, which is the more important from the 
fact that selfishness sometimes puts on the 



OBLIGATIONS OF PARENTS. 71 

guise of virtue, and deceives even those who 
are concerned in the trick. There are parents, 
who, from the ambition to have their children 
shine, stimulate them by base excitements to 
exertion, thus sacrificing the purity of the heart, 
and often the health of the body. There are 
parents, who, from a frivolous vanity, dress 
their children in an extravagant manner ; thus 
tarnishing the youthful spirit with the same 
paltry vice which sways themselves. There 
are some people who are flattered if their chil- 
dren appear precocious, and these usually at- 
tempt to make them prodigies. 

I once knew a mother who was possessed 
with this insane ambition in respect to an only 
child. This was a little boy, of bright intellect, 
but feeble constitution. There was, by nature, 
a tendency to a premature development of the 
mental faculties, and this dangerous predisposi- 
tion was seconded by all the art and influence of 
the mother. The consequence was, that while 
the boy's head grew rapidly, and at last became 
enormous, his limbs became shrunken and al- 
most useless. His mind too advanced, and at 
the age of eight years he was indeed a prodigy. 
At ten, he died, and his mother, who was a 
literary lady, performed the task of writing 
and publishing his biography. In all this, she 



72 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

seemed to imagine that she was actuated by 
benevolent motives, and never appeared to sus- 
pect the truth, plain and obvious to others, that 
this child was as truly sacrificed by a mother's 
selfishness to the demon of vanity, as the Hin- 
doo infant, given by its mother to the god of the 
Ganges, is immolated on the altar of supersti- 
tion. Let parents beware, then, how they per- 
mit their own selfishness, their own vanity or 
ambition, to lead them into the sacrifice of their 
children's happiness. Let it be remembered that 
premature fruit never ripens well, and that pre- 
cocious children are usually inferior men or wo- 
men. Parents, therefore, should be afraid of 
prodigies. Nothing is in worse taste than for 
parents to show off their children as remarkably 
witty, or as remarkable indeed for anything. 
Good breeding teaches every one to avoid dis- 
play, and well-bred parents will never offend, 
by making puppets of their children, in grati- 
fication of their own vanity. 

There are other mistakes into which parents 
are led by selfishness which assumes the sem- 
blance of disinterestedness. Thus, in the choice 
of a profession, and in marking out the plan of 
life for a child, a parent frequently consults 
rather his own ambition than the real interest 
of his offspring. In educating him, he takes 



OBLIGATIONS OF PARENTS. 73 

care to cultivate those powers which enable 
him to command wealth, rather than those 
which ensure peace of mind. He excites him 
to effort by emulation, rather than by a sense of 
duty ; he infuses into him a love of high places, 
rather than a love of his fellow-men. And 
what is all this but the immolation of a child 
on the altar of ambition by a parent's hands 1 
a sacrifice rendered still more odious by the hy- 
pocrisy of the pretence, that it is for the benefit 
of the victim. 

This may seem harsh language ; but I am 
extremely solicitous to warn parents of errors 
into which the fashion of the times is likely to 
lead them. Let the rich especially beware lest 
they expose their children to ruin. The path 
that spreads before the offspring of the poor, 
though rugged and often thorny, though steep 
and difficult to climb, is still less dangerous than 
the giddy sea upon which the children of the 
rich must make the voyage of life. The former 
are hedged in by fences, and are thus likely to 
be kept from going astray. But who shall 
guide the youth whose sail is filled with the 
tempest breezes of passion, and before whom 
is spread the boundless ocean of pleasure ! The 
extract which follows, addressed to a rich man, 



74 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

may afford some useful suggestions on this 
point. 

You are rich; yet you are eager to get 
more. Wny ? It is well, doubtless, to toil, for 
industry is the duty of all. It is well to use 
economy, for this too is a duty. But why hoard 
up your earnings ? Why seek to raise higher 
a heap already too high ? Why not distribute 
what you earn ? Why not devote your time 
to doing good? You have great power, and 
why not use it for benevolence ? I do not ask 
you to drain your purse, but why not give the 
overflow in charity or to good public objects? 
Your answer is that you labor for your children. 
For your children ? Look around and see if 
in general a great fortune is not a curse to chil- 
dren. Observation will teach you that it is so. 
Daughters with fortunes marry ambitiously, 
or become objects of base speculation, and miss 
happiness in nine cases out of ten. Sons with 
fortunes are generally vicious, imbecile, and 
worthless ; they need the wholesome and invi- 
gorating discipline of effort induced by necessity. 
They need also the restraint of dependence. 
All this you know. No man of sense can be 
ignorant that experience teaches all this in ex- 
amples of every-day occurrence. Then, why 
strive to leave a large fortune for your children, 



OBLIGATIONS OF PARENTS. 75 

when you know it will be a snare, and in all 
human probability lessen their happiness? It 
is for your own pride ; it is for the name and 
fame of leaving it, that you do thus. Nay, 
start not — it is selfishness — it is poor, weak, 
human pride that leads you to act thus against 
the dictates of true affection ! 

The obligation of parents in respect to their 
children is to make them happy, to throw aside 
selfish considerations, to burst the bonds of 
prejudice and fashion. Taking into view the 
nature of the child, his impressible character, 
his physical, intellectual and moral nature, his 
tendency to receive a decisive bias from the 
hand of the parent, his constantly accumulating 
powers of thought and capacity of feeling, his 
high duty to God, his neighbor and himself, and 
his immortal destiny ; taking all this into view, 
it is the duty of the parent to use the best means 
in his power to promote the present and future 
happiness of his child. But what are the 
means by which this end may be ensured or 
promoted? I should answer, first, govern your 
child well ; that is, teach him the principles of 
obedience, the habit of bowing to duty, of sub- 
jecting his will to the authority of a guide, 
of yielding his heart up to the rule of right. 
This is the earliest budding of virtue, the be- 



76 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

ginning of moral principle, the germ of religion, 
the first lesson in obedience to God. It might 
seem remarkable, perhaps unreasonable, that the 
Scriptures should lay such great stress on obe- 
dience to parents. But due reflection will show 
us that its importance is not overrated. It calls 
the child to a sacrifice of its own will to a 
principle of duty; and it is usually the first virtue 
which he is required to exercise. As a means 
of training the heart to duty, it is most efficient 
and important. A child, habituated to obe- 
dience to parents, is habituated to a surrender 
of his own desires from a sense of higher obli- 
gation ; a child who goes from his parents' care 
with a temper unbroken and a heart untrained 
in obedience, has yet to learn, though he may 
have reached maturity, the first lesson of virtue. 
Second, educate your child well ; that is, 
train him so as to ensure health, activity and 
vigor of body ; cultivate the social feeling, so 
as to establish a broad basis of benevolence in 
the heart ; teach him to restrain selfishness ami 
cultivate virtue ; give him pure tastes ; fill his 
mind with virtuous principles ; above all, sub- 
ject him to good habits. Third, see that your 
child is well instructed. This includes three 
things : first, that he possess the general know- 
ledge which is necessary to enable him to dis- 



LEADING CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDREN. 77 

charge the duties which will rest upon him as 
a member of society; second, that he possess 
that particular knowledge which may fit him 
to pursue his profession in life with success; 
and, third, that intellectual discipline which 
results in what we call a well-regulated mind. 
The subsequent observations, in this volume, 
are designed to aid parents and teachers in ful- 
filling their duty to the young in these respects. 



LEADING CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDREN. 

If we notice the outward forms of children, 
we shall observe great diversities of size, shape, 
complexion, and expression. Some are stout; 
others slender. Some are tall ; others short. 
Some are graceful; others awkward. Some 
have blue eyes and fair hair ; others have dark 
eyes and raven hair. And these peculiarities 
of nature in respect to the outward form are 
but symbols of those which mark the spirit 
within. But, notwithstanding this diversity, it 
will be perceived that all have essentially the 
same features and the same powers. The only 
difference that exists is, as to some of the quali- 
ties or attributes that characterize them. While 

it is necessary, therefore, for all those who have 

7# 



78 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

to deal with children to take into consideration 
their various peculiarities, and learn the art of 
adapting government and instruction to them, 
it is still more important to become acquainted 
with those universal traits of character which 
belong to children. 

One of the first of these characteristics which 
is displayed is the sympathy of child with child. 
This is manifested very early. One of the first 
objects which an infant, notices is another child. 
There seems to be a spell in a young face which 
charms an infant. This principle is manifested 
in the universal love of dolls. When the infant 
has arrived at childhood, he finds an excitement 
in the society of children; which that of grown- 
up people does not arTord. His faculties are 
stimulated by this principle, so that powers are 
developed which would otherwise remain dor- 
mant. You place a child that has no natural 
talent for music among children who possess 
this gift, and under their tutelage he will soon 
learn to sing. This fact has been fully substan- 
tiated in several of the European schools. 

Parents may turn this principle to good ac- 
count, particularly where there are several chil- 
dren in the family. By training one child, 
they may make that an example to the rest. 
When one is instructed, it may become a moni- 



tor to others. In schools, the system of mutual 
instruction, founded upon this principle of sym- 
pathy between children, may be rendered very 
useful. It needs, however, the constant vigi- 
lance of the teacher. 

But, while this principle in children may be 
turned to good account, it is sometimes the 
source of mischief. That fellow-feeling which 
renders one child the natural monitor of another, 
gives the power of communicating evil, as well 
as good. Beware, then, of trusting a good child 
to the influence of a bad one. The infectious 
diseases incident to children are not more easily 
transmitted from one to the other than are bad 
manners and bad habits. 

There is another universal trait of childhood 
which deserves notice, and that is its disposi- 
tion to imitation. It might seem, at first, to be 
but a manifestation of the same principle which 
I have just commented upon ; but, though often 
blended with it, it is still as often distinct. It 
renders a child peculiarly susceptible to the 
influence of example, and makes it a matter of 
the greatest importance that all who have the 
charge of children should see that they are 
never placed under the influence, or in the soci- 
ety, of those who display ill-temper, who have 
coarse manners, or who are addicted to any bad 



80 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

habits or vicious courses. Parents and teachers 
should be exceedingly cautious on this subject. 
A love of mimicry is an abuse of this princi- 
ple, which ought ever to be checked. 

Curiosity is a remarkable and interesting trait 
of childhood, and, though possessed in various 
degrees of activity, is common to all children. 
It is first manifested in the infant's stare at the 
lighted candle ; it is afterwards displayed in the 
eagerness with which he asks various puzzling 
questions. The poet has beautifully described 
the first unfolding of this principle. 

ce — See its power expand 



When first the coral fills the infant's hand. 
Throned in its mother's lap, it dries each tear, 
As her sweet legend falls upon his ear ; 
Next it assails him in his top's strange hum. 
Breathes in his whistle, echoes in his drum. 
Each gilded toy that doting love bestows 
He longs to break, and every spring expose. 
Placed by your hearth, with what delight he pores 
O'er the bright pages of the pictured stores ; 
How oft he steals upon your graver task, 
Of this to tell you, and of that to ask. 
And when the warning hour to bedward bids, 
Though gentle sleep sits waiting on his lids, 
How winningly he pleads to gain you o'er, 
That he may read one little story more. 

Nor yet alone to toys and tales confined, 
It sits dark-brooding o'er his embryo mind. 
Take him between your knees, peruse his face, 
While all you know, or think you know, you trace; 



LEADING CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDREN. 81 

Tell him who spoke creation into birth, 
Arched the broad heavens and spread the rolling earth ; 
Who formed a pathway for the obedient sun, 
And bade the seasons in their circles run ; 
Who filled the air, the forest, and the flood, 
And gave man all for comfort or for food ; 
Tell him he sprang at God's creating nod- 
He stops you short with, ' Father, who made God?' " 



Such is the principle of curiosity in children. 
It is useful, as exciting the mind to investiga- 
tion, But if it takes an improper direction, 
and seeks gratification by prying into private 
affairs, it acquires the character of impertinent 
inquisitiveness or contemptible meddling, and 
becomes a vicious and hurtful disturber of soci- 
ety. Young ladies who have a good deal of 
leisure on their hands need to be warned on 
this subject. 

The love of novelty is universal in children, 
though it is less active in some than in others. 
It has its use, in stimulating the mind to new 
inquiries, and rousing the faculties to new enter- 
prises ; but if too much cherished, it leads to 
dissipation of thought and irregularity of con- 
duct, interferes with industry, and interrupts, 
and destroys perseverance. In its legitimate 
sphere, it is therefore useful ; but when excess- 
ively developed, it becomes pernicious. It is a 
trait which calls for the watchfulness of parents, 



82 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

It might seem that the force of habit was too 
trite a theme to demand notice here, particu- 
larly as I have already spoken of its influence 
in the formation of moral character. But the 
importance of the subject, especially in treating 
of education, seems to give it a claim to our 
most careful attention. Habit has as great an 
influence over children as others. The rule is 
universal that what has been once done is more 
easy the next time. Repetition may enable us 
to perform that which was at first difficult, per- 
haps painful, with facility and pleasure. Habit 
may be illustrated by a beaten path ; as the 
traveller is apt to fall into and follow this, so 
the thoughts and feelings are likely to pursue 
the track which they have often followed before. 
As the stream gradually wears the channel 
deeper in which it runs, and thus becomes more 
surely bound to its accustomed course ; so the 
current of the mind and heart grows more and 
more restricted to the course in which habit has 
taught them to flow. It is these intellectual 
and moral habits that form many peculiarities of 
character, and chiefly distinguish one individual 
from another. They are therefore of the utmost 
importance. Let parents get their children into 
good habits, and they have done much to ensure 
their happiness. If they have permitted them 



LEADING CHARACTERISTCS OF CHILDREN. 83 

to become the subjects of bad habits, they have 
exposed them to a great evil. 

This topic might be easily expanded into 
a volume. "Custom," — that is, habit, — says 
Bacon, " is the principal magistrate of man's 
life. Let men, by all means, therefore, endeav- 
or to obtain good customs. Certainly custom 
is most perfect when it beginneth in young 
years. This we call education" 

Children are perhaps less selfish than grown- 
up people. But self-love is with them the 
spring of action, and moves their souls as well 
as those of others. The proper control of this 
principle is full half the business of education. 
Selfishness is a strong and hardy plant, and 
grows thriftily in every human heart. It springs 
up in the family circle, and manifests itself in the 
little strifes and contentions between brothers 
and sisters. The older and stronger boy is very 
apt, if not duly admonished, to seek his own 
gratification, with little regard to the right of 
his companions. " Mother," said a younger 
brother, " is it right for James to take all the 
best of the bed to himself? " " Certainly not," 
said the mother. " But," said James, in defence, 
" I only take half the bed." " Yes," said the 
other boy, " but you lie right in the middle, and 



84 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

take all the soft part, so that I am obliged to 
lie both sides of the bed, in order to get my 
half." This little scene will illustrate the spirit 
to which I allude. 

There is another still more disagreeable exhi- 
bition of selfishness common with boys in their 
treatment of girls. They are often exceed- 
ingly tyrannical, rude, contemptuous, and even 
cruel, towards the gentler sex of their own age. 
This demands the assiduous correction of the 
parent The claims of the weaker upon the 
stronger sex for scrupulous justice and chival- 
rous protection, ought to be inculcated and en- 
forced, especially by mothers, from the earliest 
periods of boyhood. If this is not done, there 
is danger that the selfishness of the boy, which 
displays itself in a rude exercise of his power, 
may increase with the advance of years, and at 
manhood lead him to treat woman, though it 
may be in a more gallant guise, according to 
the dictates of caprice, rather than those of jus- 
tice. 

Having noticed some of the leading traits of 
childhood, not only with a view to direct the 
parent's special attention to them, but to excite 
him to careful and vigilant study of his chil- 
dren, let us proceed to a subject of still greater 
importance. 



FAMILY GOVERNMENT. 85 



FAMILY GOVERNMENT. 

We return to the fireside. Let us suppose it 
to be a sober Saturday evening, when the week's 
work is done, and the approach of the Sabbath 
naturally draws the mind from the vexing cares 
of business, to a contemplation of the various 
duties which rest upon us. The family circle 
is now gathered around the hearth. The scene 
is divided into two groups — the parents and the 
children. The relation that subsists between 
these is the strongest, the closest, the tenderest 
that exists in human society. Even among the 
brute creation, there is an instinct which im- 
pels the parent to the defence of its offspring. 
Among the fiercer animals, the mother becomes 
fearless of danger, and reckless of life, where 
her young ones are threatened with injury. 
But the human parent has a still keener interest 
in the welfare of his children. To the affection 
which nature teaches us to bestow upon our 
offspring, reason and reflection add other and 
more endearing ties. They are not only our 
children, a part of ourselves, and linked with a 
thousand associations of pleasure or pain, of joy 
or sorrow, hope or fear ; but they are of them- 
selves creatures of feeling, susceptible of hap- 
piness or misery, capable of elevation or de- 



S6 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 



basement They may enjoy health, or suffer 
sickness ; they may be intelligent or ignorant, 
wise or foolish, virtuous or vicious. They may 
be an honor or a disgrace to their connections. 
They may be a blessing or a curse to society. 
They may die in peace or sorrow ; and may 
leave this world with an assured hope of hap- 
piness hereafter, or with the reluctant awe with 
which a criminal is brought before his judge. 

Such is the manifold web which is woven 
over the group assembled around the fireside. 
How many hopes and fears, how many ardent 
wishes, how many anxious apprehensions, are 
twisted together in the threads that connect the 
parent with the child ! 

" Thou seest the braided roots that bind 
Yon towering cedar to the rock ; 
Thou seest the clinging ivy twinedj 
As if to spurn the whirlwind's shock ; — 

Poor emblems of the strings that tie 

His offspring to a parent's heart ; 
For those will, mouldering, yield and die, 

But these can never, never part." 

The attachment of children to the father and 
mother is a less complicated sentiment, but it 
is one of the most pure, sincere and unselfish 
which human nature displays. It is a senti- 
ment combining a sense of protection, a conn- 



FAMILY GOVERNMENT. 87 

dence of good will, a trust of power so com- 
plete as to lead the child to give itself up to the 
care of the parent, without one thought of pro- 
viding for its own safety. It is not in human 
nature to resist an appeal like this. How does 
the mother feel her affection quickened at the 
reliance with which the infant throws itself 
upon her bosom, and, in conscious security, sinks 
to repose ! How does the father feel his soul 
drawn out in behalf of his children, as he sees 
them fly to him in every moment of peril ! 

What then are likely to be the reflections of 
these parents, when the busy week is over, and 
they, with their children, are collected around 
the fireside 1 If they take into view the sus- 
ceptibilities of these children: that God has 
brought them into existence to receive their 
character from education ; that this character 
is to be determined during the early portion of 
life; that during this period they are, by the 
course of providence, placed under the special 
charge of the father and the mother ; that, in 
short, the destiny of their children is entrusted 
to their hands, and is likely to be good or bad, 
according as they may be well or ill managed 
— will they not look about with anxious solici- 
tude for aid, counsel and encouragement in the 
discharge of their important duty? With a 



88 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

view to contribute my humble mite for the 
benefit of parents thus anxious for the welfare 
of their children, I shall venture first to suggest 
some practical hints on family government, and 
then proceed to notice other interesting topics. 

The first system of government ever formed 
was that of the fireside. It is, in its nature, 
despotic, giving absolute authority to the mon- 
arch parents over their subject children. Un- 
limited power should be ever used with great 
discretion, and especially in this case. The 
parent sets an example to the child. If he is 
tyrannical or unjust, he does what he can to 
make his child so. The fireside should be a 
seminary where principles of equity and charity 
are inculcated, where justice is taught by pre- 
cept and enforced by example. The whole 
tenor of parental influence should be used to 
subject the selfishness of the offspring to the 
golden rules of duty ; and how wide do they go 
from this mark, if, using the despotic power 
they possess over their children, the parents 
show that they are themselves the slaves of 
passion, or under the guidance of selfishness ! 

I need not insist upon the importance of family 
government. It is not only necessary for the 
peace and comfort of the domestic circle, but it 
is indispensable for the discipline of the tempers 



FAMILY GOVERNMENT. 89 

of children. If permitted to grow up ungo- 
verned, when they go forth into society they 
are likely to surrender themselves to every spe- 
cies of license. The danger, on this score, is 
more imminent in respect to hoys than girls. 
Society imposes sterner restraints upon the lat- 
ter than upon the former, and these may supply 
the neglect of the parent. But if you see a 
young man run into excess, or give himself up 
to vicious indulgence, you may rest assured that 
he has not been subjected to habitual govern- 
ment at home ; that his mind and heart have 
not been trained and disciplined by parental 
authority; that the principle of obedience has 
never been thoroughly established in his soul. 
Parental government, then, is a thing of serious 
import, and demands the most careful attention 
at the hands of the parent. 

Taking its importance for granted, then, I 
proceed to remark, in the first place, that pa- 
rental government should be thorough. Some 
children are easily managed, but there are few 
who will not sometimes try to have their own 
way. At one time, they will attempt to evade ; 
at another, they will brave authority. In this 
species of strife they are often sharp-witted and 
dexterous, and sometimes intrepid, pertinacious 
and headstrong. If they succeed once, they 



90 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

gather courage ; if twice, they feel assured ; if 
thrice, they triumph. The only safe method is 
for the parent to meet the first resistance of the 
child with firmness, and hy no means to per- 
mit himself to be baffled either by evasion or 
defiance. But great caution is to be used. The 
object should be ; not merely to make the child 
obey externally, but internally; to make the 
obedience sincere and hearty, and to make it 
flow alike from affection, a sense of duty, and 
a conviction that he consults his true interest in 
so doing. All these motives should be brought 
to concur in the act; if any one of them is 
wanting, the obedience is imperfect. To accom- 
plish this thorough subjection of the child to 
parental authority, it is obvious that great pru- 
dence is necessary. There must be no violence, 
no display of temper, no angry looks, no hasty 
words. Before he can expect to govern a child, 
a parent must first learn to govern himself. His 
own passions being under control, his heart 
chastened, and the traces of vexation swept 
from his countenance, he may meet the rebel- 
lious child, assured of triumph. That child 
might resist threats and be hardened by force ; 
but it is not likely long to resist patient kind- 
ness, tender remonstrance, affectionate counsel. 
There has been a great deal said as to the 
motives which should be brought to bear upon 



FAMILY GOVERNMENT. 91 

children, as well in governing as teaching them. 
Emulation is thought to be dangerous, as it 
may excite a spirit of rivalry, and sometimes 
result in jealous or envious strife. It is said to 
be "calling into action a principle exceedingly 
liable to abuse, and to the abuse of which may 
be ascribed no small share of the miseries of 
human life. It is early laying the foundation 
of alienations, animosities and heart-burnings, 
which will survive every thing but death. It 
is the accursed love of power, the everlasting 
scrambling for the high places, and desire to be 
in advance of our fellows, that keeps the world 
in commotion ; and yet we cherish this princi- 
ple, we infuse it into the young bosom, we set 
it at work in the hearts of our children, while 
they are yet in school ! It may subserve the 
purpose of learning, but not of humanity. If 
we call it into action, we do it at a tremendous 
hazard." 

All this is doubtless true in reference to the 
abuse of emulation, as a motive of action to 
children. If the desire of superiority is en- 
couraged, while no other principle is inculcated 
which may check and chasten the ambition thus 
excited, it may grow into a headstrong and 
over-mastering passion. But a love of excel- 
lence is not of itself a base or unworthy senti- 



92 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

ment, and its moderate indulgence is neither 
dangerous nor hurtful. It may with most chil- 
dren be safely called into action, as an induce- 
ment to excite them either to obedience, or 
effort in their studies, provided it is accompa- 
nied by the constant inculcation of that great 
rule of duty, do to another as you would have 
another do to you. It is better, however, in 
general, when you desire to use this incitement, 
to place before children examples from history 
or imagination, rather than to direct their at- 
tention to their immediate companions. In some 
children, the spark of ambition is exceedingly 
ready to kindle, and in such, the feeling of 
rivalry is equally prompt to rise up in the breast. 
It is seldom either safe or necessary to stimu- 
late in these the desire of superiority over their 
fellows ; it may, indeed, require to be checked, 
rather than encouraged. There are others of 
an opposite turn, who can hardly be warmed 
into emulation even by present competitors, 
much less by remote or imaginary examples. 
In these, the feeling of rivalry can hardly be 
excited, and when it is, the sentiment is usually 
momentary. The only rule that can be safely 
given on this subject appears to be this — if you 
use emulation with children, consider that, like 
fire, it is a good servant, but a bad master; that, 



FAMILY GOVERNMENT. 93 

like all excitements, it is liable to abuse, and 
often leaves behind a craving for new stimu- 
lus, sometimes rendering exertion, without an 
immediate spur, reluctant and feeble. It is 
never safe but in connection with the constant 
inculcation of the duty of dealing justly with 
all mankind. The following fable may illus- 
trate the evil consequences of rivalry engendered 
between friends and companions. 

THE RIVAL BUBBLES. 

Two bubbles on a mountain stream 

Began their race one shining morn, 
And, lighted by the ruddy beam, 

Went dancing down mid shrub and thorn . 

The stream was narrow, wild and lone, 
But gaily dashed o'er mound and rock, 

And brighter still the bubbles shone, 
As if they loved the whirling shock. 

Each leaf and flower, and sunny ray, 

Was pictured on them as they flew, 
And o'er their bosoms seemed to play 

In lovelier forms and colors new. 

Thus on they went, and side by side 
They kept in sad and sunny weather. 

And, rough or smooth the flowing tide, 
They brightest shone when close together 

Nor did they deem that they could sever, 
That clouds could rise or morning wane 

They loved, and thought that love foreyer 
Would bind them in its gentle chain* 



94 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

But soon the mountain slope was o'er, 
And mid new scenes the waters flowed, 

And the two bubbles now no more 

With their first morning beauty glowed. 

They parted, and the sunny ray 
That from each other's love they borrowed, 

That made their dancing bosoms gay, 

While other bubbles round them sorrowed ; 

That ray was dimmed, and on the wind 
A shadow came, as if from Heaven ; 

Yet on they flew, and sought to find 
From strife the bliss that love had given. 

They parted, yet in sight they kept, 
And rivals now the friends became, 

And if perchance the eddies swept 
Them close, they flashed with flame ; 

And fiercer forward seemed to bound 
With the swift ripples toward the main | 

And all the lesser bubbles round 
Each sought to gather in its train. 

They strove, and in that eager strife 
Their morning friendship was forgot, 

And all the joys that sweeten life, 
The rival bubbles knew them not. 

The leaves, the flowers, the grassy shore, 
Were all neglected in the chase, 

And on their bosoms now no more 
These forms of beauty found a place. 

But all was dim and drear within, 
And envy dwelt where love was known 

And images of fear and sin 
Were traced where truth and pleasure shone, 



FAMILY GOVERNMENT. 95 

The clouds grew dark, the tide swelled high, 
And gloom was o'er the waters flung. 

But, riding on the billows, nigh 
Each other now the bubbles swung. 

Closer and closer still they rushed 

In anger o'er the rolling river ; 
They met, and, mid the waters crushed, 

The rival bubbles burst forever ! 

The principle of fear has been, of late, a good 
deal objected to in the government of children. 
The ferule has passed into disgrace; the birchen 
rod is almost banished from society. Children, 
it is said, must be drawn by the cords of love. 
They must be governed through their good and 
gentle feelings. Fear is a servile passion, and 
should never be appealed to. It is a motive 
which may influence a brute, but it should not 
be used in the management of human beings. 
Such is the sweet philosophy of modern days ! 

For my own part, I am inclined to think 
that fear is a necessary principle in human go- 
vernment, as well at the fireside as elsewhere. 
The Scriptures present punishment as a great 
argument against vice, and reward as a great 
argument in favor of virtue. They appeal to 
fear of misery and the loss of happiness, not 
only as a motive to shun wickedness and follow 
righteousness, but as a purifying principle, tend- 
ing to produce humiliation, docility, teachable- 



96 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

ness, obedience. This policy is expressly recom- 
mended, in various parts of the Scriptures, in 
reference to family government. Children are 
again and again warned against disobedience 
by threats of evil, while, on the contrary, pro- 
mises of good are held out to the obedient. 
" Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy 
days may be long in the land which the Lord 
thy God giveth thee." In political affairs, the 
Bible constantly appeals to the fears of the peo- 
ple ; and, in reference to religion, ' it enforces 
obedience to God by offers of heaven on the one 
hand, and denunciations of misery on the other. 
Here then is the authority of the Scriptures 
in favor of the use of fear and hope as instru- 
ments of government, as motives to obedience, 
as stimulants to exertion. The propriety of 
using them is confirmed by a reference to the 
obvious principles upon which human nature is 
formed. Happiness is the desire of man, and 
the possession of it the end of his existence. 
Hope and fear are the master passions, and are 
designed by the Creator to furnish the great 
impulses to action in the pursuit of happiness. 
They are as the breeze to the ship, which swells 
the sail, and bears it onward in its track. It 
should be remarked, however, that while the 
inspired authors of the sacred page apply the 



FAMILY GOVERNMENT. 97 

strong levers of selfish hope and fear to move 
mankind in the direction of their duty, they still 
insist upon higher motives as indispensable to 
virtuous action. The obligation to obey God 
is not by them deduced from the consideration 
that it is for man's true interest to obey him; 
but it is regarded as imperative from the simple 
fact that he is God. From his relation toman, 
as the natural and moral Governor of the uni- 
verse, he claims the allegiance of his subjects, 
and he has implanted in man's bosom the whis- 
pering voice of conscience to tell him that this 
is right. But as man may neglect this monitor, 
other motives, inferior indeed, but still power- 
ful, — the motives which appeal to interest, are 
addressed. Fear is in fact selfish, and the di- 
rect action that flows from it is of course desti- 
tute of all virtuous quality. But it often brings 
the mind to a contemplation of virtue; induces 
it to look with reverence upon what is marked 
by God as good, and with aversion upon what 
is stamped as evil. At the same time, as before 
remarked, it subdues and softens the heart with 
a sense of humility, and brings it to a fit con- 
dition, like that of the well ploughed field, to 
receive the good seed, and yield the golden 
harvest. 

If therefore a sense of duty is earnestly and 
9 



98 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

constantly inculcated, I see no danger in the 
use of hope and fear as motives to exertion and 
obedience — obedience to parents, as involved in 
obedience to God. There will, in this case, be 
a higher motive in the heart — that which arises 
from a perception of the inalienable claims of 
duty ; and this will effectually prevent the 
debasing tendency which the inferior motives 
of selfish hope and fear might create, if they 
became the frequent sources of action. 

As connected with this question of motives, 
there have been also much doubt and discussion 
in regard to punishments. Corporeal punish- 
ments have been altogether discarded by many, 
as degrading to human nature and injurious to 
the subjects of such discipline. But I am dis- 
posed to think that He who recommends to 
parents not to spare the rod, understood this 
subject better than these modern reformers. It 
may be that Vicessimus Knox, that prince of 
pedagogues, who laid an average of fifty lashes 
a day upon the backs of his scholars for some 
forty years, and Dr. Samuel Johnson, who was 
a great friend to flogging, and some others, 
have quoted Solomon in behalf of a severe 
system of youthful discipline. If so, it is not 
the first time that Holy Writ has been wrested 
from its true meaning, and made the instrument 



FAMILY GOVERNMENT. 99 

by which men have vindicated their own mis- 
doings. Bnt the truth here, as in many other 
cases, lies between the extremes. Corporeal 
punishment is seldom necessary ; but almost 
every parent, who has dealt faithfully with his 
children, has found some occasion when the 
injunction, " spare not the rod," came with the 
emphasis of inspiration to his breast. It may 
be that the actual necessity for this form of 
punishment never occurs in respect to some 
children ; but almost every child, before he is 
thoroughly trained in obedience, has at least 
one sharp struggle with his parent, in which 
some decisive and humiliating mark of disap- 
probation is demanded. 

It should not, however, be overlooked, that 
the necessity of punishment depends very much 
upon the manner in which children are treated. 
The greatest rloggers have usually the most 
disobedient children. I once knew a busy, 
scouring farmer's wife, with a large family, the 
eldest fifteen years old, the youngest three. 
She seldom crossed the room without making 
some one of them stagger with a vixenish slap 
on the side of the head. Yet they were, with- 
out exception, the most noisy, mischievous, re- 
bellious little reprobates that I ever saw. The 
discipline of this mother was obviously not cor- 



100 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

rective, but nutritive of the vicious habits of 
her children. The more she flogged, the more 
their disobedience flourished. Her ill-judged 
castigation operated like a partial hoeing among 
weeds, which only makes them grow the faster. 
I have seen, on the other hand, a teacher of a 
seminary, consisting of eighty boys, succeed in 
governing the whole school, while the heaviest 
punishment ever inflicted was that of making 
a boy lie in bed for a whole day. This teacher 
had a peculiar tact for his profession ; but a 
large part of his skill lay in imperturbable cheer- 
fulness of manner, and an equanimity of temper 
which never deserted him. These prevented 
his being thrown off his guard, secured him the 
good will and confidence of his pupils, and in- 
clined them at the outset to comply with his 
requisitions. 

But, after all that may be done, it is impossible 
to lay down rules on this subject that will answer 
for every case. We may remark of punishment 
in general, as of physic, — use it as seldom as 
possible, but, when necessary, let it be effec- 
tual. And let me add, never punish a child in 
a hurry. Take time for it ; and if you can ac- 
complish your object by reasoning with him ; 
if you can bring him to repentance and a due 
sense of the duty of obedience by patient coun- 



FAMILY GOVERNMENT. lOl 

sel, consider this as far better than the infliction 
of any punishment whatever. 

There are some practices of parents which 
cannot be too severely condemned. One is a 
constant fretting at, and scolding of, children ; 
a mistake often made by mothers, who can offer 
the excuse that they have so much to do as to 
render it impossible that any thing should be 
well done. By this practice, the force of govern- 
ment is weakened, and the authority of the pa- 
rent worn out. I never knew one who was per- 
petually correcting a child, that did not either 
establish him in habits of contempt of parental 
government or stultify his intellect. It is proper 
to remark here, too, that in no duty of life is ex- 
ample more important than in family govern- 
ment. Let children see that the father and 
mother indulge angry looks or harsh words 
towards each other, and they get a bad lesson, 
which may never leave them. On the contrary, 
if they see those whom they most reverence 
and most love, habitually kind, gracious and 
patient in their intercourse with one another, 
they will carry images in their hearts, which 
will ever incline them to love and gentleness. 

There is another common error, which may 
need to be noticed, — that of correcting a child 
hastily and harshly, and then, feeling that in- 
9* 



102 FIRESIDE EDUCATION". 

justice has been done, to compensate him by 
some soothing sugarplum or honied apology. 
It is not easy to conceive of any thing more 
likely to degrade the parent in the eyes of 
his offspring than such inconsiderate folly, — 
nothing more sure to destroy his influence over 
the mind, to harden the young heart in re- 
bellion, and make it grow bold in sin. In 
proportion as the parent sinks in his esteem, 
self-conceit grows up in the mind of the un- 
dutiful child. Young people, as well as old, 
pay great respect to consistency, and, on the 
contrary, despise those whose conduct is marked 
with caprice. The sacred relation of parent is 
no protection against this contempt. Those, 
therefore, who would preserve their influence 
over their children, who would keep hold of the 
reins that may guide them in periods of danger, 
and save them from probable ruin, must take 
care not to exhibit themselves as governed by 
passion or whim, rather than fixed principles 
of justice and duty. 

There is another fatal danger in family go- 
vernment, from which I would warn every pa- 
rent, and that is partiality. It is too often the 
case that fathers and mothers have their favo- 
rite child. From this two evils result. In the 
first place, the pet usually becomes a spoiled 



FAMILY GOVERNMENT. 103 

child; and the " flower of the family" seldom 
yields any other than bitter fruit. In the second 
place, the neglected part of the household feel 
envy towards the object of special affection, and 
nourish a secret discontent towards the parent 
that makes the odious distinction. Disunion is 
thus sown in what ought to be the Eden of life, 
a sense of wrong is planted by the parent's hand 
in the hearts of a part of his family, an exam- 
ple of injustice is written on the soul of the 
offspring by him who should instil into it, by 
every word and deed, the holy principles of 
equity. This is a subject of great importance, 
and I commend it to the particular notice of 
all parents. 

I have seen a mother, who had two daughters, 
select one, for no apparent cause, as the object 
of particular affection. The daughters grew 
up and had families. For a long time they 
continued to entertain undisturbed affection for 
each other. But the mother's preference of one, 
and of all that belonged to her, though attempted 
to be concealed, could not be disguised. This 
gradually introduced a feeling of jealousy be- 
tween the sisters. Insensibly they became es- 
tranged ; the two families also began to indulge 
a spirit of rivalry. They became watchful of 
each other's words, dress, and demeanor. They 



104 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

grew mutually captious, and at last censorious. 
The result was, that, while the two families 
maintained an ostensible friendship, there was 
underneath this disguise a real hatred of each 
other. Thus a mother's selfish and unreasona- 
ble indulgence of a whim sowed discord among 
her children, and entailed misery upon her de- 
scendants. Nor is this a solitary instance. Pa- 
rents seem peculiarly exposed to this error in the 
administration of family government. Let them 
be on their guard. Let them treat their several 
children with an even hand, and, if they wish 
peace in their family, discourage uncles and 
aunts, grandmothers and grandfathers, from 
selecting one of their children as a special fa- 
vorite. Such things seldom come to good. If 
the pet gets at length some niggard legacy as a 
token of regard, it is usually bought too dear, 
even if it do not bring a curse on the recipient. 
If indeed it should seem a benefit to him on 
whom it is bestowed, the jealous envy excited 
in the other members of the family, and the 
consequent alienation of good will, are poorly 
compensated by it. Such partialities on the 
part of rich relations are often wholly selfish, 
and should be rather shunned than coveted by 
parents. Their children can do without lega- 



FAMILY GOVERNMENT. 105 

cies, but they cannot afford to be subject to the 
disturbing influence of partiality. 

I close this article by the following just obser- 
vations on the duties of parents, by Mr. Abbott, 

" In looking into human life, and seeing how 
entirely dependent for character and happiness 
the child is upon the parent, we cannot but 
consider it one of the greatest of the innumera- 
ble mysteries of divine providence, that one 
human being should be placed so completely in 
the hands of another. The wonder is increased 
by thinking how much skill, how much know- 
ledge, how much firmness, Avhat decision at one 
time, and what delicacy of moral touch, if I 
may so express it, at another, are necessary, in 
order to succeed in training up the infant mind 
as it ought to be trained. It would sometimes 
almost seem that God has given to parents a 
work to do, of such intrinsic difficulties, as very 
far exceed the capacities and the powers of 
those whom he was commissioned to execute it. 
There seems, at first view, to be a want of cor- 
respondence between what, in a wisely bal- 
anced plan, we might suppose ought to be nice- 
ly adapted to each other, — the moral capabili- 
ties of the parent and the moral necessities of 
the child. We say at first view, for on more 
mature reflection we discover simple principles 



106 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

which common sense and honest faithfulness 
will always suggest, and which, steadily pur- 
sued, must secure favorable results. Among 
the lower classes of society, we find many, 
very many families of children well brought 
up, and among the higher classes, and those too 
where virtue and christian principle seem to 
reign, and where religious instruction is pro- 
fusely given, we find total failure. The chil- 
dren are sources of trouble and wretchedness 
to their parents, from the time when they gain 
the first victory over their mother, by scream- 
ing and struggling in the cradle, to the months 
of wretchedness in later life, during which they 
are brought home, night after night, from scenes 
of dissipation and vice, to break a mother's 
heart, or to blanch the cheek of a father with 
suppressed and silent suffering. 

"What are the causes of these sad failures'? 
Why are cases so frequent in which the chil- 
dren of virtuous men grow up vicious and 
abandoned ? There are many nice and delicate 
adjustments necessary to secure the highest and 
best results in the education of a child, but the 
principles necessary for tolerable success must 
be few and simple. There are two, which we 
wish we had a voice loud enough to thunder 
in the ears of every parent in the country; — 



FAMILY GOVERNMENT. 107 

these are two, the breach of one or the other 
of which will explain almost every case of 
gross failure on the part of virtuous parents, 
which we have ever known. They are these : 

" 1. Keep your children from bad company; 
and, 

11 2. Make them obey you. 

" There is no time to enlarge on these points; 
but it seems to us that habits of insubordina- 
tion at home, and the company of bad boys 
abroad, are the two great sources of evil, which 
undo so much of what moral and religious in- 
struction would otherwise effect. The current 
of parental interest is setting towards mere in- 
struction to such an extent as to overrate alto- 
gether its power ; and the immense injury which 
comes in from such sources as bad company 
and insubordination, is overlooked and forgot- 
ten. What folly to think that a boy can play 
with the profane, impure, passionate boys which 
herd in the streets, six days in the week, and 
iiave the stains all wiped away by being com- 
pelled to learn his Sunday-school lesson on the 
seventh ; or that children who made the kitchen 
or the nursery scenes of riot and noise, from the 
age of three to eight years, will be prepared for 
any thing in after life but to carry the spirit of 
insubordination and riot wherever they may go. 



108 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

No ; children should be taught most certainly, 
but they must also be taken care of. They 
must be governed at home, and be kept from 
contaminating influences from abroad, or they 
are ruined. If parents ask, how shall we make 
our children obey? we answer, in the easiest and 
pleasantest way you can, but at all events make 
them obey. If you ask, how shall we keep our 
boys from bad company ? we answer, too, in 
the easiest and pleasantest way you possibly 
can, but at all events keep them out of the 
streets. The alternative, it seems to us, is as 
clear and decided as any which circumstances 
ever made up for man ; you must govern your 
children and keep them away from the con- 
tamination of vice, or you must expect to spend 
your old age in mourning over the ruins of 
your family." 



RELIGION. 



Religion claims the highest place in the range 
of education ; but still it is a subject which, in 
most of its details, must be left to the spiritual 
guide of the reader. He will inculcate its sub- 
lime truths, its holy obligations. He will en- 
force upon parents the necessity of stamping 
into the bosoms of children an ineffaceable con - 



RELIGION. 109 

fidence in the truth of the Bible. This is the 
corner-stone of our faith. Without this, the re- 
ligion of Christ has no foundation in the mind. 
On this point permit me to warn parents of the 
fearful force of example. Childhood is like a 
mirror, catching and reflecting images from all 
around it. Remember that an impious doubt 
or a profane thought uttered by a parent's lip, 
may operate on the young heart like a careless 
spray of water thrown upon polished steel, 
staining it with rust, which no after scouring 
can efface. 

I need not say that religion is the basis of 
all virtue, the foundation of all excellence in 
character, the only inexhaustible fountain of 
happiness ; for all this is generally admitted. 
We may bequeath to our children houses, 
lands, and other earthly treasures, but if they 
acquire not a title to some better inheritance 
we leave them poor indeed. That better inheri- 
tance may be compared to an estate in a dis- 
tant country, which can only be secured by 
travelling thither. Now, in order to induce a 
person to undertake this journey, it is proper, as 
a first step, to convince him of the actual exis- 
tence of this inheritance, and the necessity of 
the journey in order to obtain possession of it. 
If he disbelieves or even doubts the reality of 
10 



110 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

this land of promise, he will never set forth to 
visit it. Thus, in religion, a firm, undoubting 
belief in revelation is the first step. Without 
this, there is no progress in the real journey of 
life. Now there is one means in the power of 
all parents which I conceive to be very effec- 
tual in establishing a confidence in the sacred 
Scriptures, and which they alone are likely to 
employ at the proper season and with due effect. 
At a very early period of education, children 
begin to acquire some geographical knowledge. 
They soon learn that the earth is a sphere, and 
that its surface is distributed into various coun- 
tries. They learn that the Eastern Continent 
is scattered over with remnants of antiquity; 
they learn that Rome is filled with mouldering 
arches, broken columns, and moss-covered walls, 
bearing the impress of ages that are passed. 
They learn that Greece is strewn with similar 
ruins. How powerfully do these vestiges speak 
of the past, — how distinctly do they call up 
from the slumber of centuries the mighty na- 
tions which once inhabited these realms ! How 
vivid is the conviction that is engendered in the 
mind by such witnesses, that the story of these 
great nations, handed down to us by the page 
of history, is no dubious fable, but a positive, 
unquestionable reality ! Now the parent may 



RELIGION. Ill 

carry the mind of his child, hy the aid of books 
in common use, to Judea. He may show him 
that Jerusalem still exists ; that the Jordan still 
flows on ; that mount Calvary still throws up 
its frowning battlements toward the sky ; that 
the sea of Galilee still spreads out its level 
surface, reflecting the image of heaven, as when 
Christ trod its shores and the apostles cast their 
nets into its bosom. Let the parent speak of 
these things as they now exist, and as travellers 
describe them, and these will all become living 
witnesses to the truth of revelation. Spread 
before a child a map of the Holy Land ; show 
him the course of its rivers, the shape of its 
boundaries, the position of its mountains. Point 
him to the names of places rendered familiar 
by the Scriptures. Point, to Jerusalem, Jericho, 
Bethlehem, Samaria, Nazareth. Let him know 
that these places, though more remote, as truly 
exist as New York, London, or Paris. Let 
him learn them as geographical facts ; habitu- 
ate him to this train of thought, and his child- 
ish doubts of the validity of revelation will 
vanish. He will then read the Bible with 
unwavering confidence. Those mists which 
are so apt to gather over the mind, and seem to 
render the scenes which the sacred page unfolds, 
dim and doubtful as the visions of an Arabian 



112 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

tale, will be cleared away, and faith, strength- 
ened by habit, will take that deep and strong 
anchorage, from which no tempest in after life 
can drive it. 

Having enforced the necessity, and pointed 
out the means, of laying deep in the minds of 
children the foundation of confidence in the 
Bible as the word of God, I proceed to offer a 
few general remarks connected with religious 
education. There is no subject on which the 
influence of parents is more felt by children, 
than religion. It is so vast in its compass that 
a child does not, at first, attempt to grasp it. 
It baffles his comprehension and overtasks his 
imagination. He shrinks back from the effort 
to master it, and yields to the guidance of those 
who are wiser than himself. He submits his 
faculties to the parent on this subject with im- 
plicit obedience. He gives up his mind and 
soul, — believes as he is taught to believe, and 
feels as he is taught to feel. 

Parents ought deeply to ponder their respon- 
sibility in this matter. The child surrenders 
his immortal spirit to the father and the mother, 
saying, in effect, mould me in this as you will ! 
And let me appeal to parents in behalf of this 
confiding child. Remember the character of 
the " golden bowl " that is entrusted to your 



RELIGION. 113 

care, and that it may be broken at the very 
fountain ! On the great question of our rela- 
tion to a God, and the duties and the des- 
tiny connected with such a relation, — on the 
subject which involves our highest hopes and 
our most anxious fears, — which embraces, not 
the happiness of a life of threescore years and 
ten, alone, but of that life which stretches from 
an earthly shore across the boundless sea of 
eternity, — in regard to this vast subject, the 
child makes you his trustee. He has an im- 
mortal existence, and may claim a glorious heri- 
tage, if. his interest is rightly managed. Will 
you fulfil this trust faithfully, or will you betray 
your own offspring, where betrayal may result 
in irretrievable loss ? 

Consider your position. You may determine 
whether your child shall be an infidel or a be- 
liever, an atheist or a Christian. If you openly 
avow a disbelief in the Bible, will your child 
not be an unbeliever also 1 If, on the contrary, 
you are a believer, and act consistently with 
your faith, will your child be a skeptic ? Nay, 
does not observation teach us r .ll that children 
will not only follow the creed of their parents 
in its general doctrine, but that in most cases 
they will adopt its minuter dogmas, and catch 
the very tone of the religious feelings they en- 
gender? 

10* 



114 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

Care should be taken that children imbibe no 
prejudice against religion, on account of the 
faults and foibles of some of its professors. It 
sometimes happens that persons professing to be 
religious, and affecting a peculiar degree of sanc- 
tity, are still marked with certain disagreeable 
traits of character. They are perhaps gloomy, 
and would give the impression that religion im- 
parts gloom to those who become subject to its 
influence. Or perhaps they are disputatious, and 
draw the sword of controversy on unsuitable 
occasions. Or they may combine ignorance 
with conceit, and undertake to instruct those 
who are wiser and better than themselves. Or 
they may imagine that they have some call 
from heaven to persuade mankind to become 
Christians, and, forgetting or disdaining the pro- 
prieties of life, force religious conversation upon 
people at improper times. Or they may have 
that peculiar species of arrogance, which begins 
with expressions of humility, and ends by giv- 
ing you to understand that they have been 
blessed with heavenly light, while you are in 
the " gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity. " 
All these, and many other forms of error, igno- 
rance, impertinence, or hypocrisy, are to be 
met with in people who profess to be religious ; 
and it is an unfortunate fact that such persons 
are frequently zealous, and therefore render 



RELIGION. 115 

themselves conspicuous. And the mischief that 
has been done by such people to the cause of 
religion itself, by attaching to it their own disa- 
greeable characteristics, is very great. 

But there is one remedy for this evil in the 
hands of parents. Let them teach their chil- 
dren at the proper age to discriminate between 
religion, and the faults, follies and foibles of 
those who assume its sacred garb ; teach them 
to discriminate between vulgarity of manners 
and errors in principle. It must be admitted 
that the Christian character seldom approaches 
perfection; that, if we look to individuals, we 
shall find that the best of men are still fallible. 
The purest heart, when closely scanned, dis- 
covers the strands of selfishness, braided in 
with piety or benevolence. Instead therefore of 
looking to individual professors of Christianity 
as perfect mirrors of religion, or instead of refer- 
ring to any one sect for a full reflection of it, 
we should look to its fruits, as displayed by the 
whole body of Christians. Instead of testing 
religion by a reference to particular persons or 
particular creeds, we should regard the great 
results of the whole system. If you judge the 
tree by its fruit, it should be by the average 
of what it yields, and not by a single speci- 
men. And in this way, Christianity will stand 



116 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

the test. Bring together the whole body of 
Christians, of all persuasions, and I hesitate not 
to declare that they will exhibit a loftier stand- 
ard of virtue, a purer code of morals, a higher 
sense of justice and humanity, than any other 
class of men that exist on the face of the earth. 
Let the Christian religion be viewed in this 
light, and it will readily claim the admiration 
of every candid and enlightened mind. Let it 
be well understood that there are quacks, fana- 
tics, and impertinent meddlers in religion, as in 
every other good cause ; but let it also be un- 
derstood that these persons are marked with 
individual qualities which the spirit of true reli- 
gion would rebuke, and the existence of which, 
wherever they may be found, goes far to prove 
the absence of that spirit. Let these views be 
entertained by parents, and, on proper occa- 
sions, communicated to children, and these will 
be saved from those perilous misapprehensions, 
which have driven more persons intu infidelity 
than any other single cause. 

One thing farther. The common cant of the 
irreligious and profane is made up of gibes and 
sneers at religion, on account of the errors and 
inconsistencies of those who bear the name of 
Christians. There can be no surer mark of ill 
breeding, no more palpable instance of bad 



RELIGION. 117 

taste, than to participate in this poor wit. But, 
at the same time, it is not wise, unduly, to pal- 
liate the faults of those who profess to be reli- 
gious. Whoever furnishes any reason to a child 
to suspect him of want of candor, to suspect 
that he is influenced by a sinister design, runs 
the risk of turning the whole strength of the 
child's mind and heart against that which he 
would desire to inculcate. The true rule, on 
this point, would seem to be this, — admit frank- 
ly the imperfections of individual Christians, 
but, on suitable occasions, illustrate the spirit of 
Christianity, by exhibiting its effects upon the 
world at large. Suppose you were to blot Chris- 
tianity from the earth, and what would be the 
condition of the human family? To what creed 
should we resort, to support our hopes of im- 
mortality, or unfold the duties and the destinies 
of man? Would Mahometanism, or Bramanism, 
or any other pagan scheme, content us? Would 
not the moral world seem deprived of the great 
luminary which gives it light, and warmth and 
vitality ? We know, indeed, that the fool, who 
has said in his heart " there is no God," aflirms 
that, in spite of the diffusion of Christian know- 
ledge, the world goes on now as it has gone 
before. But the fact is not so. Within the 
last century, the human mind has made great 



118 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

progress, and it requires no very profound study- 
to discover, that Christianity has been the pio- 
neer in this onward march. The advance of 
civilization has resulted from a diffusion of po- 
litical liberty, and this has arisen from a better 
knowledge of the rights of man. And from what; 
source has the sense of justice sprung, which 
has thus been scattered over Christendom, and 
induced even kings and emperors to mitigate 
their sway of despotism? It is from Christianity, 
alone. It is this which has established, on a 
firm basis, the principles of equity between man 
and his fellow man. Greece and Rome had 
beautiful schemes of liberty, but they rested 
upon no substantial basis of morals, and their 
institutions perished. Modern civilization is 
supported by the eternal pillars of Christian mo- 
rality, and the world's progress must now be 
onward. How different is the spirit of this age 
from what has ever been witnessed before ! 
How many charitable institutions have arisen, 
within the last few years, to benefit the poor, 
the distressed, the unfortunate ! How many as- 
sociations have been formed for the suppression 
of vice and the promotion of virtue, and how 
wonderfully have their efforts been seconded 
by society ! And are not these, at once, proofs 
of an advanced state of civilization, and strides 



RELIGION. 119 

in the march of human improvement? In look- 
ing at our own country, can we not remark a 
purer morality than existed twenty- five years 
ago ? Is not the standard of church discipline, 
throughout all sects, higher now than it was 
then? Is not public opinion sounder now than 
formerly? Would not vices, which were tole- 
rated in society but a short time since, subject 
a man who should practise them to reproba- 
tion now ? Are not individual rights regarded 
with more respect ? Is there not a nicer sense 
of justice and humanity throughout the com- 
munity than before ? And is not Christianity 
the leader in this great progress ? Are not the 
great body of Christians, the active and effi- 
cient originators and promoters of these various 
improvements in society? May we not, then, 
wisely direct the attention of our children to these 
views of Christianity, as an important means 
of establishing its claims to their confidence ? 

Though the topic is a delicate one, it may 
not be improper to make a few suggestions as 
to the rules which should govern parents in in- 
fluencing the religious faith of their offspring. 
I would bring up my children in my own reli- 
gious creed, and I would commend it to every 
child to follow the faith of his parents till he has 
reached his majority ; and then I would only 



120 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

advise him to change it upon deliberate consid- 
eration. I would commend it to every person 
of mature age to adopt a religious creed, and 
to attach himself to some religious society, and, 
if he can conscientiously, to become a member 
of a church. Aside from higher motives, 
which may be deduced from the injunctions of 
Scripture, it may be remarked that by these 
means a person fortifies himself against unbe- 
lief; that he draws around him religious friends, 
who may strengthen his faith in those times of 
doubt which sometimes beset every mind • and, 
furthermore, that he subjects himself to the 
wholesome watch of a community whose inter- 
est and duty it is to deal frankly with his foibles 
and his frailties. 

There is no more false or dangerous doctrine 
than the one often heard on the lips of the in- 
considerate, that it is of little or no consequence 
what a man believes. Creeds are opinions, 
and opinions the basis of action. The moral 
character must in general conform to, or at 
least be greatly influenced by, the religious doc- 
trines which a man embraces. As the stream 
never rises higher than the source, so a man's 
conduct is seldom better than his principles. If 
his religious faith is loose, his life will be so too ; 
if he adopts a faith which presents high motives 



RELIGION. 121 

to virtue, it will lead him to adopt a high stand- 
ard of moral character; if it presents feeble 
motives to virtue, it will scarcely enable him to 
stem the natural current of human passions, 
and, with the profession of Christianity, may 
leave him but little better than a heathen. 

While, therefore, I admit the importance of 
definite and settled religious opinions, and com- 
mend it to every person to sustain his own 
faith, that having been duly considered, with 
steadfastness, and on proper occasions with 
zeal ; I conceive, however, that this should ever 
be done with a full admission that Christ's 
church embraces the pious of all creeds ; that 
no one sect can claim to hold exclusively the 
keys of heaven's gate ; that indeed all those 
who have experienced the grace of God in 
their hearts, of whatever name, may finally 
hope to enter in. I deem it important that 
parents should imbue their children, at the 
proper age, with these views. They will 
serve many good purposes : they will lead 
to the exercise of charity towards those whc 
hold opposite tenets ; they will induce them to 
look upon the bickerings of rival religious com- 
munities as collisions of the steel and flint, sharp 
and fierce it may be, and in such cases cer- 
tainly to be condemned, but as a means which 
11 



122 FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 

may still develop the light of truth and the glow 
of piety. They will lead them to look upon 
the divisions in the Christian world, not with 
despondency and sickness of heart, as it might 
seem that our religion has introduced a sword 
among mankind; but as a system by which 
religious liberty and religious zeal are secured 
and perpetuated in the world. 

In conclusion, let parents ever remember that 
religion is a gift which riches cannot purchase 
nor poverty deny. It is within the poor man's 
ability, and he may be assured that his child, 
with a good religious education, even with an 
empty purse, has surer and better wealth than 
all the gold of Peru. The rich man's children 
particularly need a religious education, for they 
are exposed to peculiar dangers. As a ship in 
a gale of wind needs a more careful hand at 
the helm than at other times, so those who have 
wealth to give wings to their passions, especially 
require the monitory influence of that wisdom / 
which comes from religious experience and 
instruction. 

Of all the means for cultivating religion in 
the heart, I know of none so effectual as reading 
the Scriptures. A familiar anecdote may illus- 
trate this. The child of a drunken sailor once 
asked him for bread. Irritated by this request, 
the dissolute father spurned the boy from him 
with his foot, and he fell into the sea from 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 123 

the beach. Nothing could be immediately done 
by the people on the shore, and the child soon 
disappeared; but, by clinging to an oar or 
raft that he came near, he floated till picked up 
by a vessel then under weigh. The child could 
only tell the people on board that his name 
was Jack, but the humanity of the crew led 
them to take care of him. Poor Jack, as he 
grew up, was promoted to wait on the officers, 
received instruction easily, was quick and 
steady, and served in some actions. At last 
he obtained so much credit that he was ap- 
pointed to the care of the wounded seamen. 
While engaged in this duty, he noticed one who 
was sick, with a Bible under his head. He 
showed this man much attention, and when 
he was near dying, he requested Jack to accept 
this Bible, which he said had been the means 
of reclaiming him from the ways of sin. By 
some circumstance, poor Jack recognised in the 
penitent sailor his once cruel father. 

It ought not to be forgotten that in religion, 
as in other things, exercise is a principle of cul- 
tivation, and habit a sure means of confirma- 
tion. See then that the children under your 
care are duly required to read the Scriptures, to 
pray, to read pious books, to join in pious con- 
versation, and give proper attendance to the 



124 RELIGION. 

public worship of God. Let this be the special 
care of the mother, for she has that nice skill 
which enables her to do all this in a pleasant 
way ; in a way to prevent that dangerous wea- 
riness and disgust which ill-managed teaching 
often begets. Let her see that by these means, 
on which she may hope for the blessing of 
Heaven, religious principles, tastes, and feelings, 
are nourished in the heart of childhood ; so that 
the love of mankind may become the control- 
ling habit of the heart, and fashion the whole 
character. I shall close this interesting topic by 
an earnest appeal to a mother, whose power and 
responsibility in the business of religious edu- 
cation are great indeed. 

TO A MOTHER. 

You have a child on your knee. Listen a 
moment. Do you know what that child is? 
It is an immortal being ; destined to live forever ! 
It is destined to be happy or miserable ! And 
who is to make it happy or miserable 1 You — 
the mother ! You, who gave it birth, the mo- 
ther of its body, are also the mother of its soul 
for good or ill. Its character is yet undecided; 
its destiny is placed in your hands. What shall 
it be ? That child may be a liar. You can 
prevent it. It may be a drunkard. You can 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 125 

prevent it. It may be a thief. You can pre- 
vent it. It may be a murderer. You can pre- 
vent it. It may be an atheist. You can pre- 
vent it. It may live a life of misery to itself 
and mischief to others. You can prevent it. 
It may descend into the grave with an evil 
memory behind and dread before. You can 
prevent it. Yes, you, the mother, can pre- 
vent all these things. Will you, or will you 
not ? Look at the innocent ! Tell me again, 
will you save it ? Will you watch over it, will 
you teach it, warn it, discipline it, subdue it, 
pray for it 1 Or will you, in the vain search of 
pleasure, or in gayety, or fashion or folly, or in 
the chase of some other bauble, or even in house- 
hold cares, neglect the soul of your child, and 
leave the little immortal to take wing alone, 
exposed to evil, to temptation, to ruin? Look 
again at the infant ! Place your hand on its 
little heart ! Shall that heart be deserted by 
its mother, to beat perchance in sorrow, disap- 
pointment, wretchedness and despair? Place 
your ear on its side and hear that heart beat ! 
How rapid and vigorous the strokes ! How 
the blood is thrown through the little veins ! 
Think of it; that heart, in its vigor now, is the 
emblem of a spirit that will work with cease- 
less pulsation, for sorrow or joy, forever. 
11* 



126 MORALS. 

MORALS. 

The great law under which man is laid by 
his Creator is this — " Love the Lord thy God 

WITH ALL THY HEART, AND THY NEIGHBOR AS THY- 
SELF." This is the whole compass of religion. 
The love of God, or piety, is the object of the 
first branch of the law ; the love of mankind, 
or benevolence, is that of the other. This last 
is usually denominated the moral law, and in- 
cludes duties to ourselves and our fellow-men. 
Morality is sometimes considered as indepen- 
dent of religion, and we often hear people speak 
of a moral man, as distinct from a religious man. 
But true morality is but a portion of religion ; it 
has its foundation in the love of God, and exists 
only through that love. There is no such thing, 
therefore, as morality without religion — as a 
moral man who is not a religious man. A man 
may observe externally the rules of society, 
from a selfish regard to his own interests, and 
thus be called, in common phrase, a moral 
man ; but the truly moral man is one who feels 
the force of the great law — " love thy neighbor 
as thyself," and who obeys it, because his 
heart approves of it, because it is a good law, 
and because it comes from the great Lawgiver. 
It is obvious that such motives of action only 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 127 

belong to one who loves the Lord his God with 
all his heart, and who is therefore pious. Mo- 
rality and religion, accordingly, go together : 
whatever a man's pretences may be, he is un- 
sound in both, if unsound in either. 

In Christian countries, we deduce the obliga- 
tions of morality directly from the Bible. Hav- 
ing satisfied ourselves that this contains the 
word of God, we look upon it as furnishing the 
surest guide in all matters upon which it pre- 
tends to instruct us. But if we need other 
proof of our obligations to observe the great 
laws of morality, we can easily find it. I have 
before stated that man has moral faculties, by 
which he perceives right and wrong. " Every 
one feels that it is wrong to lie, to steal, to 
murder, to be cruel. Every one feels that it 
is right to tell the truth, to be honest, affection- 
ate, kind and grateful. And if any person will 
think for a moment, he will perceive that there 
are certain results which always follow these 
two sorts of actions. If any one do wrong, as, 
for instance, if he lie, or steal, or abuse another 
person, he feels a peculiar sort of unhappiness, 
which is called the feeling of guilt ; he is afraid 
of being detected, he wishes he had not done it, 
and if he be detected, he knows that every one 
dislikes and despises him for his conduct. And, 



128 MORALS. 

on the contrary, if he have done right, as if he 
have told the truth, have been grateful, or have 
returned good for evil, he feels a peculiar sort 
of pleasure ; he is satisfied with himself, and 
knows that all men will look upon him with 
respect." 

Now that faculty by which we perceive our 
actions to be right or wrong, and which begets 
a feeling of pleasure or of pain, as we may have 
done well or ill, is denominated conscience. 
"We are told of a follower of Pythagoras, who 
had bought a pair of shoes from a cobbler, for 
which he promised to pay him on a future day. 
He went with the money on the day appointed, 
but found that the cobbler had in the interval 
departed this life. Without saying any thing 
of his errand, he withdrew, secretly rejoicing at 
the opportunity thus unexpectedly afforded for 
obtaining a pair of shoes for nothing. There 
was something in him, however, which would 
not permit him to remain quiet under such an 
act of injustice ; so, taking up the money, he 
returned to the cobbler's shop, and, casting 
in the coin, said, " Go thy way, for though 
he is dead to all the world beside, he is alive 
to me." Such is conscience. This gift pecu- 
liarly distinguishes man from the animal crea- 
tion. It appears to exist in all countries and in 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 129 

every condition of society. In savage and bar- 
barous tribes, it is sometimes obscured and often 
perverted. But in general, it is a sure guide, 
and, being written by the finger of God on every 
man's heart, is a universal law. There is, 
however, a disposition in mankind to throw off 
the obligations of this law ; or, in other words, 
to neglect the dictates of conscience. This is 
the fact even among Christians, in the midst 
of religious institutions, and the effort is often 
successful. But if this be the case where the 
light of revelation is shining, how much more 
likely are those who live in the darkness of 
heathenism to succeed in quenching the spi- 
rit of truth that is within them. At the time 
Christ appeared to preach the gospel in Judea, 
nearly the whole world had succeeded in put- 
ting out the light of conscience. For the law 
of benevolence, mankind had substituted the 
law of retaliation. The fashionable doctrine 
was, " an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." 
It was in the midst of this pervading darkness 
that Christ announced the beautiful rule of ac- 
tion, " Do to another as ye would have another 
do to you." " Love your enemies," said he, 
" and pray for those who despitefully use you 
and persecute you." 

There was a sublimity in all this, which, to 



130 MORALS. 

my mind, surpasses the achievements of con- 
quest and the discoveries of science. In the 
midst of a moral night, which overshadows the 
earth, in a spot favored by no moral illumina- 
tion, a being appears and writes, as it were, 
upon the sky, " Love thy neighbor as thyself!" 
The golden words dispel the darkness, and 
throw light and lustre over the world. They 
remain from age to age, gathering brightness 
with time, and still showing that, after all the 
discoveries of man, no rule of human duty can 
be produced, no code of social obligation, which 
weakens or supersedes them. 

The law of conscience is therefore universal, 
but it is sanctioned and enforced by revelation.^ 

* I beg the parent's attention to the following observations, by 
Dr. Wayland. 

" Those faculties are the strongest which are used the most. 
If one man be stronger than another, we shall find that he uses his 
strength more than the other. He whose occupations require the 
use of his arms, becomes strong in his arms ; while he who walks 
or runs much becomes strong in his legs. He who uses his 
memory habitually remembers easily, that is, acquires a strong 
memory ; while he who rarely tries to recollect what he hears or 
reads, very soon has a weak memory. And thus men have come 
to this general conclusion, that all our faculties are strengthened 
by use and weakened by disuse. 

" This rule applies to conscience in several particulars : — 

" The more frequently we use our conscience in judging be- 
tween actions as right or wrong, the more easily shall we learn 
to judge correctly concerning them. He who, before every action, 
will deliberately ask himself, ' Is this right or wrong ? ' will sel- 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 131 

It is also strengthened by a consideration of the 
benefits to which it tends. The happiness of 

dom mistake what is his duty. And children may do this, as well 
as grown persons. 

" Our conscience is also improved in this respect by reflecting 
upon virtuous actions and thinking upon virtuous characters. 
The more we do this, the easier we learn to distinguish and avoid 
every thing that is wrong. It is for this reason that we should 
think much on the character of our blessed Savior, if we wish to 
improve our conscience and make progress in virtue. So young 
persons should reflect upon the character of Samuel, Joseph, 
Daniel, in the Bible, and of George Washington and other good 
men of later times. And of course, on the contrary, we shall 
weaken our power of making moral distinctions if we neglect to 
inquire into the moral character of our actions. If children or men 
go on doing right or wrong, just as it happens, without ever inquir- 
ing about it, they will at last care but little whether they do the 
one or the other, and in many cases will hardly be able to dis- 
tinguish between them. Every one knows that children who are 
taught by their parents to reflect upon their actions and distinguish 
between right and wrong, know much better how they ought to 
act than those whose parents never gave them any instructien on 
the subject. 

" And, again, we injure our power of judging correctly of moral 
actions if we allow ourselves to witness or hear of wickedness, 
or if we are in the habit of letting wicked thoughts dwell in our 
minds. If a boy for the first time hear another swear, he will feel 
it to be wrong ; but if he associate much with him, he will soon 
care nothing about it, and very soon will begin to swear himself. 
The same is the case with lying, cruelty, bad language, or any 
other wickedness. This shows us how careful we should be to 
avoid all bad company, and never to mingle with those who per- 
sist in doing wrong. 

" I have mentioned, above, that we could all observe in the feeling 
of conscience a sort of command, urging us to do what is right. 
Now this command becomes stronger or weaker just in proportion 



132 MORALS. 

society at large is promoted by a universal ob- 
servance of the moral law. 

as we use it. For instance, he who is careful always to do what 
his conscience commands, finds the power of temptation over him 
to be weaker. He who strives always to be just, and never to de- 
fraud any one of the least thing, either in play or in earnest, will 
find a very strong opposition in his mind to doing any injustice ; 
while he who only occasionally allows himself to lie, or cheat, 
will find that his opposition to lying and dishonesty is gradually 
growing weaker, and it is well if he do not in the end become a 
confirmed thief and liar. 

" And it is, moreover, to be remembered, that both of these last 
rules have an effect upon each other. The more we are in the 
habit of reflecting upon the right and the wrong of our actions, the 
stronger will be our inclination to do right ; and the more scrupu- 
lously we do right, the more easily shall we be able to distinguish 
between right and wrong. 

" Once more. I have alluded to the fact that conscience is a 
source of pleasure and of pain. It is so in a greater or less degree, 
in proportion as we use it. 

" The oftener we do good actions, the greater happiness we re- 
ceive from doing them. Do you not observe how happy kind and 
benevolent persons always are ? Do you not observe that persons 
who seldom do a good action, do it almost without pleasure, 
while really kind and benevolent people seem to derive constant 
enjoyment from making others happy ? And if there is so much 
happiness to be derived from doing good, we ought to be grateful 
that God has placed us in a world in which there is so much good 
to be done, and in which every one, poor as well as rich, young as 
well as old, may enjoy this happiness almost as much as he 
pleases. 

" And, on the contrary, the oftener men disobey their consciences, 
the less pain do they suffer from doing wrong. When boys first 
lie, or use bad words, they feel guilty, and very unhappy ; but if 
they are so wicked as to form the habit of doing thus, they soon 
do it without pain, and sometimes even become proud of it. This 
is the case with stealing, or any other wickedness." 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 133 

In illustration of the high moral endowments 
of man, and the inward impulses implanted by 
his Creator, I subjoin the following striking pas- 
sage from Dr. Dick's Philosophy of a Future 
State. 

" Man is formed for action, as well as for con- 
templation. For this purpose there are inter- 
woven in his constitution, powers, principles, 

Conscience, as we all know, may be listened to or disregarded ; 
and in this, habit has great influence. The following story, from 
the Juvenile Miscellany, illustrates this. 

" A lady, who found it difficult to awake so early as she desired 
in the morning, purchased an alarm watch. This kind of watch 
is so contrived as to strike with a very loud whizzing noise at any 
time the owner pleases. The lady placed the watch at the head 
of the bed, and, at the appointed time, she found herself effectually 
roused by the loud rattling sound. She immediately obeyed the 
summons, and felt the better all day for her early rising. This 
continued for several weeks. The alarm watch faithfully perform- 
ed its office, and was distinctly heard so long as it was promptly 
obeyed. But, after a time, the lady grew tired of early rising, and, 
when awakened by the noisy monitor, merely turned herself and 
slept again. In a few days, the watch ceased to arouse her from 
slumber. It spoke just as loudly as ever, but she did not hear it, 
because she had acquired the habit of disobeying it. Finding 
that she might just as well be without an alarm watch, she formed 
the wise resolution, that, if she ever heard the sound again, she 
would jump up instantly, and that she would never allow herself 
to disobey the friendly warning. 

" Just so it is with conscience. If we obey its dictates, even to 
the most trifling particulars, we always hear its voice clear and 
strong. But if we allow ourselves to do what we fear is not quite 
right, we shall grow more and more sleepy, until the voice of con- 
science has no longer any power to waken us." 

12 



134 MORALS. 

instincts, feelings, and affections, which have a. 
reference to his improvement in virtue, and 
which excite him to promote the happiness of 
others. These powers and active principles, 
like the intellectual, are susceptible of vast im- 
provement, by attention, by exercise, by trials 
and difficulties, and by an expansion of the 
intellectual views. Such are filial and fraternal 
affection, fortitude, temperance, justice, grati- 
tude, generosity, love of friends and country, 
philanthropy, and general benevolence. Dege- 
nerate as our world has always been, many 
striking examples of such virtues have been 
displayed both in ancient and modern times, 
which demonstrate the vigor, expansion, and 
sublimity of the moral powers of man. 

"When we behold men animated by noble 
sentiments, exhibiting sublime virtues, and per- 
forming illustrious actions, — displaying gene- 
rosity and beneficence in seasons of calamity, 
and tranquillity and fortitude in the midst of 
difficulties and dangers — desiring riches only for 
the sake of distributing them — estimating places 
of power and honor only for the sake of sup- 
pressing vice, rewarding virtue, and promot- 
ing the prosperity of their country — enduring 
poverty and distress with a noble heroism — suf- 
fering injuries and affronts with patience and 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 135 

serenity — stifling resentment when they have 
it in their power to inflict vengeance — display- 
ing kindness and generosity towards enemies 
and slanderers — 'Vanquishing irascible passions 
and licentious desires in the midst of the strong- 
est temptations — submitting to pain and dis- 
grace in order to promote the prosperity of 
friends and relatives — and sacrificing repose, 
honor, wealth, and even life itself, for the good 
of their country, or for promoting the best inte- 
rests of the human race, — we perceive in such, 
examples features of the human mind which 
mark its dignity and grandeur, and indicate its 
destination to a higher scene of action and en- 
joyment. 

" Even in the annals of the Pagan world, we 
find many examples of such illustrious virtues. 
There we read of Regulus, exposing himself to 
the most cruel torments, and to death itself, 
rather than suffer his veracity to be impeached, 
or his fidelity to his country to be called in 
question — of Phocion, who exposed himself to 
the fury of an enraged assembly, by inveighing 
against the vices, and endeavoring to promote 
the best interests of his countrymen, and gave it 
as his last command to his son, when he was 
going to execution, ' that he should forget how- 
ill the Athenians had treated his father' — of 



136 



MORALS. 



Cyrus, who was possessed of wisdom, modera- 
tion, courage, magnanimity, and noble senti- 
ments, and who employed them all to promote 
the happiness of his people — of Scipio, in whose 
actions the virtues of generosity and liberality, 
goodness, gentleness, justice, magnanimity, and 
chastity, shone with distinguished lustre — and 
of Damon and Pythias, who were knit together 
in the bonds of a friendship which all the ter- 
rors of an ignominious death could not dissolve. 
But of all the characters of the heathen world, 
illustrious for virtue, Aristides appears to stand 
in the foremost rank. An extraordinary great- 
ness of soul, says Rollin, made him superior to 
every passion. Interest, pleasure, ambition, re- 
sentment, jealousy, were extinguished in him 
by the love of virtue and his country. The 
merit of others, instead of offending him, be- 
came his own by the approbation he gave it. 
He rendered the government of the Athenians 
amiable to their allies, by his mildness, good- 
ness, humanity, and justice. The disinterest- 
edness he showed in the management of the 
public treasure, and the love of poverty, which 
he carried almost to an excess, are virtues so 
far superior to the practice of our age, that they 
scarce seem credible to us. His conduct and 
principles were always uniform, steadfast in the 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 137 

pursuit of whatever he thought just, and inca- 
pable of the least falsehood, or shadow of flat- 
tery, disguise, or fraud, even in jest. He had 
such a control over his passions, that he uni- 
formly sacrificed his private interests and his 
private resentments to the good of the public. 
Themistocles was one of the principal actors 
who procured his banishment from Athens ; but, 
after being recalled, he assisted him on every 
occasion with his advice and credit, joyfully 
taking pains to promote the glory of his greatest 
enemy through the motive of advancing the 
public good. And when, afterwards, the dis- 
grace of Themistocles gave him a proper oppor- 
tunity for revenge, instead of resenting the 
ill-treatment he had received from him, he con- 
stantly refused to join with his enemies, being 
as far from secretly rejoicing over the misfortune 
of his adversary, as he had been before from 
being afflicted at his good success. Such vir- 
tues reflect a dignity and grandeur on every 
mind in which they reside, which appear incom- 
patible with the idea that it is destined to retire 
forever from the scene of action at the hour of 
death. 

" But the noblest examples of exalted virtue 
are to be found among those who have enlisted 
themselves in the cause of Christianity. The 
12* 



138 MORALS. 

apostle Paul was an illustrious example of 
every thing that is noble, heroic, generous, and 
benevolent in human conduct. His soul was 
inspired with a holy ardor in promoting the 
best interests of mankind. To accomplish this 
object, he parted with friends and relatives, re- 
linquished his native country, and every thing 
that was dear to him either as a Jew or as a 
Roman citizen, and exposed himself to perse- 
cutions and dangers of every description. Dur- 
ing the prosecution of his benevolent career, he 
was ' in journeyings often, in perils of waters, 
in perils of robbers, in perils by his own coun- 
trymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in 
the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in 
the sea, in perils among false brethren ; in wea- 
riness and painfulness, in watchings often, in 
hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in stripes 
above measure, in cold and nakedness.' Yet 
none of these things moved him, nor did he 
count his life dear to him, provided he might 
finish his course with joy, and be instrumental 
in accomplishing the present and eternal happi- 
ness of his fellow-men. In every period of the 
Christian era, similar characters have arisen to 
demonstrate the power of virtue and to bless 
mankind. Our own age and country have pro- 
duced numerous philanthropic characters, who 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 139 

have shone as lights in the moral world, and 
have acted as benefactors to the human race. 
The names of Alfred, Penn, Barnard, Raikes, 
Neilde, Clarkson, Sharpe, Buxton, Wilberforce, 
Venning, and many others, are familiar to every- 
one who is in the least acquainted with the 
annals of benevolence. The exertions which 
some of these individuals have made in the 
cause of liberty, in promoting the education of 
the young, in alleviating the distresses of the 
poor, in meliorating the condition of the pri- 
soner, and in counteracting the abominable traf- 
fic in slaves, will be felt as blessings conferred 
on mankind throughout succeeding generations, 
and will, doubtless, be held in everlasting re- 
membrance. 

" But among all the philanthropic characters 
of the past or present age, the labors of the late 
Mr. Howard stand pre-eminent. This illustri- 
ous man, from a principle of pure benevolence, 
devoted the greater part of his life to active 
beneficence, and to the alleviation of human 
wretchedness, in every country where he tra- 
velled, — diving into the depth of dungeons, and 
exposing himself to the infected atmospheres of 
hospitals and jails, in order to meliorate the 
condition of the unfortunate, and to allay the 
sufferings of the mournful prisoner. In prose- 



140 MORALS. 

cuting this labor of love, he travelled three times 
through France, four times through Germany, 
five times through Holland, twice through Italy, 
once through Spain and Portugal, and also 
through Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Poland, and 
part of the Turkish empire, surveying the haunts 
of misery, and distributing benefits to mankind 
wherever he appeared. 
■ 

* From realm to realm, with cross or crescent crowned, 
Where'er mankind and misery are found, 
O'er burning sands, deep waves, or wilds of snow, 
Mild Howard journeying seeks the house of woe. 
Down many a winding step to dungeons dank, 
Where anguish wails aloud and fetters clank, 
To caves bestrewed with many a mouldering bone, 
And cells whose echoes only learn to groan ; 
Where no kind bars a whispering friend disclose, 
No sunbeam enters, and no zephyr blows ; — 
He treads, inemulous of fame or wealth, 
Profuse of toil and prodigal of health ; 
Leads stern-eyed Justice to the dark domains, * 
If not to sever, to relax the chains ; 
Gives to her babes the self-devoted wife, 
To her fond husband liberty and life, — 
Onward he moves ! disease and death retire ; 
And murmuring demons hate him and admire.' 

DARWIN. 

i 'Such characters afford powerful demonstra- 
tions of the sublimity of virtue, of the activity 
of the human mind, and of its capacity for con- 
tributing to the happiness of fellow intelligences 
to an unlimited extent. We have also, in our 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 141 

own times, a class of men who have parted from 
their friends and native land, and have gone to 
the c uttermost ends of the earth,' to distant 
barbarous climes, exposing themselves to the 
frosts of Labrador and Greenland, to the scorch- 
ing heats of Africa, and to the hostile attacks 
of savage tribes, in order to publish the salvation 
of God, and to promote the happiness of men 
of all languages and climates. Some of these 
have felt their minds inspired with such a noble 
ardor in the cause of universal benevolence, 
that nothing but insurmountable physical ob- 
structions prevented them from making the tour 
of the world, and imparting benefits to men of 
all nations, kindreds, and tongues." 

But it has been before suggested that man 
may abuse his moral gifts, and pervert them to 
evil purposes, and thus bring misery upon him- 
self and those around him. It may be well to 
consider some examples of this kind, and bring 
them into contrast with the foregoing examples 
of virtue, and thus show that while peace and 
content flow from acts of obedience to the dic- 
tates of conscience, bitter remorse follows close 
upon the heels of vice and crime. 

" While Belshazzar was carousing at an impi- 
ous banquet, with his wives and concubines and 
a thousand of his nobles, the appearance of the 



142 MORALS. 

fingers of a man's hand, and of the writing on 
an opposite wall, threw him into such consterna- 
tion, that his thoughts terrified him, the girdles 
of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote 
one against another. His terror in such circum- 
stances cannot be supposed to have proceeded 
from a fear of man ; for he was surrounded by 
his guards and his princes, and all the delights 
of music, and of a splendid entertainment. Nor 
did it arise from the sentence of condemnation 
written on the wall ; for he was then ignorant 
both of the writing and of its meaning. But 
he was conscious of the wickedness of which 
he had been guilty, and of the sacrilegious im- 
piety in which he was then indulging, and, 
therefore, the extraordinary appearance on the 
wall was considered as an awful foreboding of 
punishment from that almighty and invisible 
Being whom he had offended. Tiberius, one 
of the Roman emperors, was a gloomy, treach- 
erous, and cruel tyrant. The lives of his peo- 
ple became the sport of his savage disposition. 
Barely to take them away was not sufficient, 
if their death was not tormenting and atrocious. 
He ordered, on one occasion, a general massa- 
cre of all who were detained in prison, on ac- 
count of the conspiracy of Sejanus his minister, 
and heaps of carcasses were piled up in the pub- 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 143 

lie places. His private vices and debaucheries 
were also incessant, and revolting to every 
principle of decency and virtue. Yet this ty- 
rant, while acting in the plenitude of his power, 
and imagining himself beyond the control of 
every law, had his mind tormented with dread- 
ful apprehensions. We are informed by Taci- 
tus, that, in a letter to the senate, he opened the 
inward wounds of his breast, with such words 
of despair as might have moved pity in those 
who were under the continual fear of his ty- 
ranny. Neither the splendor of his situation as 
an emperor, nor the solitary retreats to which 
he retired, could shield him from the accusations 
of his conscience, but he himself was forced to 
confess the mental agonies he endured as a 
punishment for his crimes. Antiochus Epi- 
phanes was another tyrant remarkable for his 
cruelty and his impiety. He laid siege to the 
city of Jerusalem, exercised the most horrid 
cruelties upon its inhabitants, slaughtered forty 
thousand of them in three days, and polluted, 
in the most impious manner, the temple, and 
the worship of the God of Israel. Some time 
afterwards, when he was breathing out curses 
against the Jews for having restored their an- 
cient worship, and threatening to destroy the 
whole nation, and to make Jerusalem the com- 



144 MORALS. 

mon place of sepulture to all the Jews, he was 
seized with a grievous torment in his inward 
parts, and excessive pangs of the colic, ac- 
companied with such terrors as no remedies 
could assuage. 'Worms crawled from every 
part of him ; his flesh fell away piece-meal, and 
the stench was so great that it became intolera- 
ble to the whole army ; and he thus finished an 
impious life by a miserable death.' During this 
disorder, says Polybius, he was troubled with a 
perpetual delirium, imagining that spectres stood 
continually before him, reproaching him with 
his crimes. Similar relations are given by his- 
torians of Herod, who slaughtered the infants 
at Bethlehem, of Galerius Maximianus the au- 
thor of the tenth persecution against the Chris- 
tians, of the infamous Philip II. of Spain, and 
of many others whose names stand conspicuous 
on the rolls of impiety and crime. 

"It is related of Charles IX. of France, who 
ordered the horrible Bartholomew massacre, and 
assisted in this bloody tragedy, that, ever after, 
he had a fierceness in his looks, and a color in 
his cheeks, which he never had before ; that he 
slept little, and never sound, and waked fre- 
quently in great agonies, requiring soft music 
to compose him to rest ; and at length died of a 
lingering disorder, after having undergone the 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 145 

most exquisite torments both of body and mind. 
D' Aubigne informs us that Henry IV. frequently 
told, among his most intimate friends, that, 
eight days after the massacre of St. Bartholo- 
mew, he saw a vast number of ravens perch and 
croak on the pavilion of the Louvre ; that the 
same night Charles IX., after he had been two 
hours in bed, started up, roused his grooms of 
the chamber, and sent them out to listen to a 
great noise of groans in the air, and, among 
others, some furious and threatening voices, the 
whole resembling what was heard on the night 
of the massacre; that all these various cries 
were so striking, so remarkable, and so articu- 
late, that Charles, believing that the enemies of 
the Montmorencies and of their partisans had 
surprised and attacked them, sent a detachment 
of his guards to prevent this new massacre. 
It is scarcely necessary to add, that the intelli- 
gence brought from Paris proved these appre- 
hensions to be groundless, and that the noises 
heard must have been the fanciful creations of 
the guilty conscience of the king, countenanced 
by the vivid remembrance of those around him 
of the horrors of St. Bartholomew's day. 

" King Richard III., after he had murdered 
his innocent rc^al nephews, was so tormented 
in conscience, as Sir Thomas Moore reports 
13 



146 MORALS. 

from the gentlemen of his bedchamber, that 
he had no peace or quiet in himself, but always 
carried it as if some eminent danger was near 
him. His eyes were always whirling about on 
this side, and on that side ; he wore a shirt of 
mail, and was always laying his hand upon his 
dagger, looking as furiously as if he was ready 
to strike. He had no quiet in his mind by day, 
nor could take any rest by night, but, molested 
with terrifying dreams, would start out of his 
bed, and run like a distracted man about the 
chamber. 

" This state of mind, in reference to another 
case, is admirably described in the following 
lines of Dryden. 

1 Amidst your train this unseen judge will wait, 
Examine how you came by all your state, 
Upbraid your impious pomp, and in your ear 
Will hollow, rebel ! traitor ! murderer ! 
Your ill-got power wan looks and care shall bring. 
Known but by discontent to be a king. 
Of crowds afraid, yet anxious when alone, 
You '11 sit and brood your sorrows on a throne ' 

" Bessus, the Pgeonian, being reproached with 
ill-nature for pulling down a nest of young spar- 
rows and killing them, answered, that he had 
reason so to do, ' because these little birds never 
ceased falsely to accuse him of the murder of 
his father.' This parricide had been till then 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 147 

concealed and unknown; but the revenging 
fury of conscience caused it to be discovered by 
himself, who was justly to suffer for it. That 
notorious skeptic and semi-atheist Mr. Hobbes, 
author of the ' Leviathian,' had been the means 
of poisoning many young gentlemen and others 
with his wicked principles, as the Earl of Ro- 
chester confessed, with extreme compunction, on 
his death-bed. It was remarked, by those who 
narrowly observed his conduct, that 'though, 
in a humor of bravado, he would speak strange 
and unbecoming things of God ; yet in his stu- 
dy, in the dark, and in his retired thoughts, he 
trembled before him.' He could not endure to 
be left alone in an empty house. He could not, 
even in his old age, bear any discourse of death, 
and seemed to cast off all thoughts of it. He 
co aid not bear to sleep in the dark; and if his 
candle happened to go out in the night, he would 
wake in terror and amazement, — a plain indica- 
tion that he was unable to bear the dismal re- 
flections of his dark and desolate mind, and 
knew not how to extinguish nor how to bear 
the light of ' the candle of the Lord ' within 
him." 

Enough has been said to show the importance 
of the moral powers of man ; that these are the 
highest portion of his nature; that upon the pro- 



148 MORALS. 

per training and right exercise of them depends 
our happiness here and hereafter. It has been 
also shown that the moral faculties are as capa- 
ble of cultivation as the intellect. Yet it is a 
remarkable and alarming fact that our system 
of seminary instruction almost wholly over- 
looks this important branch of education.^ The 

* " Teachers address themselves to the culture of the intellect 
mainly. The fact that children have moral natures and social af- 
fections, then in the most rapid state of development, is scarcely- 
recognised. One page of the daily manual teaches the power of 
commas ; another, the spelling of words ; another, the rules of 
cadence and emphasis; but the pages are missing which teach 
the laws of forbearance under injury, of sympathy with misfortune, 
of impartiality in our judgments of men, of love and fidelity to 
truth ; of the ever-during relations of men, in the domestic circle, 
in the organized government, and of stranger to stranger. How 
can it be expected that such cultivation will scatter seeds, so that, 
in the language of Scripture, ' instead of the thorn shall come up 
the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come v.p the myrtle tree V 
If such be the general condition of the schools, is it a matter of 
surprise that we see lads and young men thickly springing up in 
the midst of us, who startle at the mispronunciation of a word, 
as though they were personally injured, but can hear volleys of 
profanity unmoved ; who put on arrogant airs of superior breeding, 
or sneer with contempt at a case of false spelling or grammar, but 
can witness spectacles of drunkenness in the street with entire 
composure ? Such elevation of the subordinate, such casting down 
of the supreme, in the education of children, is incompatible with 
all that is worthy to be called the prosperity of their manhood. 
The moral universe is constructed upon principles not admissive 
of welfare under such an administration of its laws. In such 
early habits, there is a gravitation and proelivity to ultimate 
downfall and ruin. If persevered in, the consummation of a peo- 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION, 149 

Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Edu- 
cation seems to consider the statute of this state, 
providing that no school books shall be used 
in any of the public schools calculated to favor 
any particular religious sect or tenet, as an ex- 
planation, at least in part, of this neglect ; but 
as the same inattention to moral culture per- 
vades nearly all the seminaries of other states 
and other countries, it is obvious that there is a 
more extensive cause at work in this matter. 
It may be that the fear of rendering moral cul- 
ture a means of instilling particular religious 
tenets into the minds of the young, has, in a few 
instances, led some parents to exclude it from 
the school-house and the academy ; and perhaps 
they have been seconded by the caution of their 
religious guides, whose position is likely to ren- 
der them scrupulous on this subject. But these 
views are wholly unreasonable, if they actually 
exist, and, after all, do not probably exert a 
powerful influence. 

pie's destiny may still be a question of time, but it ceases to he 
one of certainty. To avert the catastrophe, we must look to a 
change in our own measures, not to any repeal or suspension of 
the ordinances of nature. These, as they were originaily framed 
in wisdom, need no amendment. Whoever wishes for a change 
in effects, without a corresponding change in causes, wishes for 
a violation of nature's laws. He proposes, as a remedy for the 
folly of men, an abrogation of the wisdom of Providence." — First 
Annual Report of the Secretary of the Board of Education of 
Massachusetts. 

13* 



150 MORALS. 

The true explanation of the neglect of moral 
culture in our seminaries, and of its neglect al- 
together, except so far as it may receive the 
casual attention of the parent or the preacher, 
to be found in the worldly views of life 
which are current in society. The intellect is 
known to be the seat of knowledge, and know- 
ledge is known to be power. Those who have 
the charge of children look forward to the 
means of acquiring wealth and station as all- 
important : they therefore endeavor to cultivate 
the mind and enlarge its capacity, believing 
that they thus put those under their care in the 
sure road to fortune. And this may be so, if we 
consider fortune to consist only in the world's 
wealth. But if we regard virtue as the highest 
attainment and the richest treasure, and con- 
sider that wealth without it is a worthless pos- 
session, nay, usually a snare to its holder and 
a curse to society, we shall see that true wisdom 
condemns the policy which cultivates the intel- 
lect and neglects the heart. Let this subject, 
therefore, receive the careful attention of pa- 
rents. Let them consider that moral culture is 
indispensable, and let them bear in mind, what 
has frequently been said before, that the soul 
may be educated as well as the mind. If we 
bring up our children to a trade or profession, 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 1^1 

we see that they acquire, by study, practice and 
habit, the knowledge, the knack and the taste 
necessary to success. The trade or profession 
of virtue is more necessary still, and it may be 7 
by study, practice and habit, as strongly im- 
pressed upon the character as the knowledge 
of any art or profession. 

I shall now proceed to notice several impor- 
tant moral duties, including those which involve 
obligations to society and ourselves. I shall 
not pretend to go through with the whole cata- 
logue of virtues, but shall only mention those 
which seem most important. And let me ob- 
serve, that one of the most efficient modes of 
impressing a child with the importance of any 
thing, is for a parent to let him see, by his own 
looks, words, and conduct, that he sets a high 
value upon it 

TRUTH. 

Truth is the foundation of virtue. An ha- 
bitual regard for it is absolutely necessary. He 
who walks by the light of it has the advantage 
of the midday sun ; he who would spurn it 
goes forth amid clouds and darkness. There is 
no way in which a man strengthens his own 
judgment and acquires respect in society so 
surely as by a scrupulous regard to truth. The 



15B MORALS. 

course of such an individual is right on and 
straight on. He is no changeling, saying one 
thing to-day and another to-morrow. Truth to 
him is like a mountain landmark to the pilot; 
he fixes his eye upon a point that does not 
move, and he enters the harbor in safety. On 
the contrary, one who despises truth and loves 
falsehood is like a pilot who takes a piece of 
drift-wood for his landmark, which changes 
with every changing wave. On this he fixes 
his attention, and, being insensibly led from 
his course, strikes upon some hidden reef, and 
sinks to rise no more. Thus truth brings suc- 
cess; falsehood results in ruin and contempt. 

JUSTICE. 

This is a great virtue, implying in its general 
sense the obligation to render to every one what 
is his due. In common acceptation, it is the 
duty of being honest and fair in all our deal- 
ings. But it has a farther signification. It not 
only binds us to deal equitably in matters of 
property, but requires us to respect the feelings 
and character of others. If you take an unfair 
advantage of a man in a bargain, you cheat him ; 
if you take away his goods or merchandise, 
without his consent, you are guilty of theft. 
If you forcibly take away another's purse, yo T i 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 153 

are a robber. For all these acts of injustice, 
human laws provide punishment; there are 
comparatively few, therefore, who will be guilty 
of such crimes. But I am afraid that many 
persons, who would be shocked at the idea of 
cheating, thieving, or robbing, in matters of 
property, have no scruples in cheating an- 
other of what might be due to his character 
— of stealing away his peace of mind or rob- 
bing him of his fair fame. But it should not 
be forgotten that justice requires fair dealing in 
the one case as well as the other ; that if human 
laws watch over the rights of property, the all- 
seeing eye of justice watches over the subtler 
rights and possessions of the heart. 

It is true we have walls and fences to protect 
our lands, bolts and bars to secure our mer- 
chandise ; we have also statutes against acts of 
injustice in respect to property ; we have courts 
to try, and prisons to punish offenders against 
these laws ; and all this array of power admo- 
nishes every member of society to be just in the 
common business of life. But there are dearer 
possessions than those of lands and merchan- 
dise, which are thus protected. " He who steals 
my purse steals trash, but he who robs me of 
my good name leaves me poor indeed." And 
how shall these delicate interests be defended? 



154 MORALS. 

I know of no other way than by inculcating a 
sense of justice in society. And to make this 
effectual, let parents begin with their children. 
Let them not only caution them against theft, 
and cheating, and robbery, but against all those 
little tricks, arts and artifices by which children 
attempt to wound each other's feelings; by 
which one child endeavors to shift to another 
the blame that belongs to himself; and, above 
all, against the wanton, mischievous, or mali- 
cious tendency, which children often have, to 
exaggerate the faults or misrepresent the con- 
duct of others. Let parents encourage justice 
in all things. Let them set examples of justice 
before their children, especially in dealing with 
them. Let them never reward or punish un- 
justly. 

One thing farther. Teach your children, by 
example and precept, never to wound a person's 
feelings because he is poor, because he is de- 
formed, because he is unfortunate, because he 
holds a humble station in life, because he is 
poorly clad, because he is weak in body or 
mind, because he is awkward, or because the 
God of nature has bestowed upon him a darker 
skin than theirs. The rich man, who makes 
an ostentatious display of his wealth, and there- 
by robs a poor man of his peace of mind } is ; in 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 155 

the eye of morality, a robber. The fortunate 
man, who bestows scorn and contempt upon 
the unfortunate, and thus takes away his self- 
respect, is in the eye of morality a thief. Let 
such lessons as these be engraved by a mother's 
hand on the heart of every child. 

MERCY. 

This is benevolence, mildness, or tenderness 
of heart, and disposes a person to overlook 
injuries, or to treat an offender better than he 
deserves. 

" Mercy is twice blessed ; — 



It blesseth him that gives and him that takes. 

'Tis mightiest in the mighty ; it becomes 

The throned monarch better than his crown. 

His sceptre shows the source of temporal power, 

The attribute of awe and majesty, 

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings ; 

Eut mercy is above the sceptred sway ! 

It is enthroned in the hearts of kings ! 

It is an attribute of God himself! 

And earthly power doth then show likest God's 

When mercy seasons justice." 

But this beautiful virtue may be also exer- 
cised by us all in the common intercourse of 
society, and be thus twice blessed, blessing 
"him that gives and him that takes." Let 
children, therefore, be taught to be kind and 
gentle to all around them. Let every act of 



156 MORALS. 

cruelty, whether wanton or malevolent, be re- 
buked ; let them be required to observe this 
rule even toward the brute creation. The Scrip- 
ture says that the merciful man is merciful to 
his beast. If, therefore, you would educate 
your children thoroughly in this virtue, require 
its exercise even toward insects, and birds, and 
quadrupeds, and every thing that can feel. It 
is lawful to make these creatures subservient 
to our pleasure and our comfort, and to this end 
we may take their lives; but we may never 
wantonly subject them to pain or deprive them 
of existence. If we do this, we not only com- 
mit a sin, but cultivate the spirit of cruelty in 
our own hearts. 

There is one trait of character in our Ameri- 
can boys which I think deserves to be checked ; 
and that is the incessant war that they carry 
on against familiar birds and the lesser quad- 
rupeds. As soon as a boy can hurl a stone, he 
becomes a Nimrod, and goes forth as a mighty 
hunter against the bluebirds, cat-birds, swal- 
lows and robins that venture into our gardens, 
orchards and fields. Not even the little wren, 
that comes with his fair offer of a dozen beau- 
tiful songs a day for the rent of some nook or 
cranny about the house, is safe from the whiz- 
zing missile. Not even the little sparrow, that 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 157 

would build beneath your window, is tolerated. 
Not even the little ground squirrel, that enlivens 
the woods, is permitted to eat his nut in safety. 
And when the boy becomes a youth, the same 
exterminating war is carried on, though with 
a different weapon. With the fowling-piece 
in his hand, he roams the orchard and the 
field, slaughtering, without discrimination, jays, 
woodpeckers, sparrows, blackbirds, bob-o-links, 
and the rest of the feathered family. 

Now, is not this all wrong? Does not this 
partake of cruelty ? And, beside, is it not obvi- 
ous folly 1 For my own part, I love to see the 
birds enlivening the landscape. The rigor of 
our climate drives them away for half the year, 
but I mourn when they are gone, and rejoice at 
their return. They are a great resource to 
those who will observe them. Their songs, how- 
ever varied, are ever beautiful. Their forms, 
habits and capacities are themes of interesting 
study. It is delightful to see them building 
their nests, rearing their young, pursuing their 
food, and displaying their various musical gifts. 
Why, then, should we drive these creatures 
away 1 Some of them, it is true, are thieves, 
and take more cherries and corn than we are 
willing to spare them, and I approve of neces- 
sary scarecrows and suitable pelting in these 
14 



158 MORALS. 

cases. But why banish the whole feathered 
race, most of whom are not merely innocent, 
but absolutely useful in diminishing the num- 
ber of noxious insects ? It is not so in other 
countries. In England, birds generally are pro- 
tected and cherished. I do not speak now of 
pheasants, partridges, and other game, which 
are sheltered in the parks, and preserved from 
all but his lordship's shot; but, throughout the 
whole country, the sparrows, bulfinches, gold- 
finches, thrushes, blackbirds, and other little 
songsters, are permitted to live almost without 
molestation. They are seen by hundreds in 
every hedge and field. Many of them are al- 
most domesticated around the houses ; and even 
in the cities, such as Liverpool, Manchester, 
Birmingham, London, and others, amid the 
smoke of coal, the din of factories, and the 
throng of people, you see thousands of these 
little birds. In the heart of an English city, I 
have sometimes waked up in the morning, and, 
from the bursting melody of finches and spar- 
rows around, have imagined myself to be in the 
country. 

Why is it that our custom in respect to birds 
is so different in America? Have we derived 
from our pilgrim fathers a spirit of extermina- 
tion 1 Because the first settlers of this country 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 159 

cut away the forests, slaughtered the Indians, 
smote the bear and the bison, hunted down the 
panther and the wolf, have we derived from 
them a spirit of extirpation, which, now that 
the monsters of the forest are slain, is given up 
by men, but lives in our children, and vents 
itself on cat-birds and sparrows 1 I know not ; 
but, be this as it may, I mourn over the soli- 
tude which is gradually gathering over the 
landscapes of New England, from the' absence 
of the feathered songsters; and I mourn over 
that spirit of wanton cruelty which makes man 
the enemy, instead of the friend, of harmless 
birds. 

FORGIVENESS. 

" To err is human ; to forgive, divine." 

" Teach me to feel another's woe, 
To hide the fault I see ; 
That mercy I to others show, 
That mercy show to me." 

" Of him that hopes to be forgiven, it is indis- 
pensably required that he forgive. On this 
great duty, futurity is suspended, and to him 
who refuses to practise it, it might seem that 
mercy might reasonably be denied. 

" The discretion of a man defers his anger, 
and it is his glory to pass over a transgression. 
By taking revenge, a man is but even with his 
enemy, but in passing it over, he is superior. " 



160 MORALS. 

PITY, PATIENCE, &o. 

There are various other virtues, such as pity, 
patience, forbearance, humility, candor, content, 
gratitude, all of which deserve the attention 
of parents, and which should be inculcated 
upon children as occasion may arise. And let 
it be remembered that these, as well as other 
virtues, may be made to grow in the heart by 
being cherished and called into frequent exer- 
cise, or may never exist there if a parent's hand 
do not sow the seed. The last of these virtues 
which we have mentioned is commended to 
every heart by the lines of Burns — 

" The bridegroom may forget the bride 
Was made his wedded wife yestreen ; 
The monarch may forget his crown, 
That on his head an hour hath been 

The mother may forget the child 

That smiles sae sweetly on her knee ; 

But I'll remember thee, Glencairn, 
And all that thou hast done for me." 

The beauty of gratitude is heightened when 
we contrast it with its opposite vice. " Ingrati- 
tude is a sin so shameful that there never was 
a man found who would own himself guilty of 
it. Ingratitude perverts all the measures of 
religion and society, by making it dangerous to 
be charitable and good-natured. However, it 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 161 

is better to expose ourselves to ingratitude than 
to be wanting in charity to the distressed. He 
that promotes gratitude pleads the cause both 
of God and man, for without it, we can neither 
be sociable nor religious. An ungrateful man 
is a reproach to the creation, an exception from 
all the visible world ; neither the heavens above 
nor the earth beneath affording any thinff like 
him. 

Blow, blow, thou wintry wind ; 
Thou art not so unkind 

As man's ingratitude ; 
Thy tooth is not so keen, 
Because thou art not seen, 

Although thy breath is rude. 

Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky ; 
Thou dost not bite so nigh 

As benefits forgot ; 
Though thou the waters v/arp, 
Thy sting is not so sharp 

As friends remembering not." 

DISCRETION. 

This is a nice perception of what is right 
and proper under the circumstances in which a 
person is called to act. It may be illustrated 
by the feelers of the cat, which are long hairs 
placed upon her nose, with which she readily 
measures the space between sticks and stones 
through which she desires to pass, and thus 
14* 



162 MORALS. 

determines, by a delicate touch, whether it is 
sufficiently large to let her go through without 
being scratched. Thus discretion appreciates 
difficulties, dangers and obstructions around, 
and enables a person to decide upon the proper 
course of action. 

" There are many more shining qualities in 
the mind of man, but there is none so useful as 
discretion. It is this which gives a value 
to all the rest, which sets them at work, and 
turns them to the advantage of the person who 
is possessed of them. Without it, learning is 
pedantry and wit impertinence; nay, virtue 
itself often looks like weakness. Discretion not 
only shows itself in words, but in all the cir- 
cumstances of action; and is like an agent of 
providence, to guide and direct us in the ordi- 
nary chances of life." 

But how shall discretion be cultivated in 
children ? Chiefly by example. It is a virtue 
especially committed to the cultivation of the 
mother. She may do much to promote it, by 
rebuking acts of imprudence, and bestowing 
due encouragement upon acts of discretion. Let 
the mother remember that discretion is impor- 
tant to men, and see that she cherishes it in her 
sons ; let her remember that it is essential to 
women, and make sure of it in her daughters. 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 163 



CHEERFULNESS, 



Of all the virtues, cheerfulness is the most 
profitable. It makes the person who exercises 
it happy, and renders him acceptable to all he 
meets. While other virtues defer the day of 
recompense, cheerfulness pays down. It is a 
cosmetic, which makes homeliness graceful and 
winning; it promotes health, and gives clear- 
ness and vigor to the mind. It is the bright 
weather of the heart, in contrast to the clouds 
and gloom of melancholy. It is particularly 
susceptible of cultivation by exercise and repe- 
tition. It is infectious, and may be communi- 
cated to all around. I have seen a bright-faced 
child in the midst of a family, over whom some 
shadow of dulness was creeping, suddenly dis- 
perse the clouds and bring a clear sunshine 
over the whole group. Such a child in a family 
is worth his weight in gold. 

A mother's cheerfulness is important. She is 
to the family the centre of the solar system, 
and as she smiles or frowns, the household is 
bright or dull. But in proportion as cheerful- 
ness is beneficial, its opposite is hurtful. There 
is a species of melancholy which has a pleasant 
flavor to the heart, but pensiveness is the proper 
name for this. There is a constitutional me- 



164 MORALS. 

lancholy, which manifests itself in a love of 
mournful music, and lonely landscapes, and 
pathetic poetry. I have seen this displayed 
in very early childhood. I remember a child, 
who, at the age of five years, was often found in 
some sequestered part of a garden, with her lip 
curled and the tears flowing down her cheeks, 
without the power to tell the reason. If asked 
for explanation, she would dash the tears away, 
and say she could not help it. This kind of 
melancholy is of dangerous tendency, and may 
bring evil, if indulged or encouraged. There 
is misery enough to beget real sorrow, and we 
should rather nerve the heart to resist despon- 
dency, than indulge a state of mind, which, 
seconded by the influence of real trouble, may 
break down our courage and destroy our 
energy. 

I am afraid many good and pious people 
make a great mistake in cherishing gloomy 
views of life, both among themselves and their 
children. Under the idea that it is necessary 
to wean the heart from the pleasures and pos- 
sessions of this world, they speak of it habitu- 
ally as a vale of tears, a path of thorns and 
briers, through which we must pass in our 
journey to another state of existence. This is 
certainly an erroneous view of life, and is the 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 165 

fruitful source of many evils. It disgusts the 
young and the cheerful with religion and reli- 
gious people, who become associated in their 
minds with moody dulness or revolting gloom. 
But the effect of these views upon persons of a 
melancholy temperament is even worse. They 
are apt to sink deep into the mind, and, coin- 
ciding with the tendencies of the heart, to over- 
shadow the whole being with the dismal mist 
of habitual despondency. In such cases, in- 
sanity is the frequent result. And where this 
does not happen, where the mind is sustained 
by religious hope, still how desolate is the ex- 
istence of that individual who is trained to look 
upon this world only as a scene of sorrow and 
trial. And, beside, is it not a false, unprofita- 
ble and impious view of existence ? Has God 
given this to us as a curse'? There is, doubtless, 
a great deal of misery in the world, but it is 
chiefly brought upon us by our own miscon- 
duct. And, moreover, the balance of pleasure 
infinitely outweighs the pain. 

Dr. Paley remarks that " it is a happy world 
after all. The air, the earth, the water, teem with 
delighted existence. In a spring noon or a sum- 
mer evening, on whichever side I turn my eyes, 
myriads of happy beings crowd upon my view. 
The insect youth are on the wing. Swarms 



166 MORALS. 

of new-born flies are trying their pinions in the 
air. Their sportive motions, their wanton mazes, 
their gratuitous activity, their continual change 
of place without use or purpose, testify their 
joy, and the exultation which they feel in their 
lately discovered faculties. A bee amongst the 
flowers in spring is one of the most cheerful 
objects that can be looked upon. Its life ap- 
pears to be all enjoyment; so busy, and so 
pleased ; yet it is only a specimen of insect life, 
with which, by reason of the animal being half 
domesticated, we happen to be better acquainted 
than we are with that of others. The whole 
winged insect tribe, it is probable, are equally 
intent upon their proper employments, and, un- 
der every variety of constitution, gratified, and 
perhaps equally gratified, by the offices which 
the Author of their nature has assigned to them. 
But the atmosphere is not the only scene of en- 
joyment for the insect race. Plants are covered 
with aphides, greedily sucking their juices, and 
constantly, as it should seem, in the act of 
sucking. It cannot be doubted but that this is 
a state of gratification. What else should fix 
them so close to the operation and so long? 
Other species are running about, with an alac- 
rity in their motions, which carries with it 
every mark of pleasure. Large patches of 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 167 

ground are sometimes half covered with these 
brisk and sprightly natures. If we look to 
what the waters produce, shoals of the fry of 
fish frequent the margins of rivers, of lakes, 
and of the sea itself. These are so happy, that 
they know not what to do with themselves. 
Their attitudes, their vivacity, their leaps out 
of the water, their frolics in it, which 1 have 
noticed a thousand times with equal attention 
and amusement, all conduce to show their ex- 
cess of spirits, and are simply the effects of that 
excess. Walking by the sea-side, in a calm 
evening, upon a sandy shore, and with an ebb- 
ing tide, 1 have frequently., remarked the ap- 
pearance of a dark cloud, or, rather, very thick 
mist, hanging over the edge of the water, to the 
height, perhaps, of half a yard, and of the breadth 
of two or three yards, stretching along the coast 
as far as the eye could reach, and always re- 
tiring with the water. When this cloud came 
to be examined, it proved to be nothing else 
than so much space, filled with young shrimps, 
in the act of bounding into the air from the 
shallow margin of the water, or from the wet 
sand. If any motion of a mute animal could 
express delight, it was this : if they had meant 
to make signs of their happiness, they could 
not have done it more intelligibly. ' Suppose 



168 MORALS. 

then, what I have no doubt of, each individual 
of this number to be in a state of positive en- 
joyment ; what a sum, collectively, of gratifica- 
tion and pleasure have we here before our view! 

" The young of all animals appear to me to 
receive pleasure simply from the exercise of 
their limbs and bodily faculties, without refe- 
rence to any end to be attained, or any use to 
be answered by the exertion. A child, without 
knowing any thing of the use of language, is in 
a high degree delighted with being able to speak. 
Its incessant repetition of a few articulate 
sounds, or, perhaps, of the single word which 
it has learnt to pronounce, proves this point 
clearly. Nor is it less pleased with its first 
successful endeavors to walk, or rather to run, 
which precedes walking, although entirely igno- 
rant of the importance of the attainment to 
its future life, and even without applying it to 
any present purpose. A child is delighted with 
speaking, without having any thing to say; 
and with walking, without knowing where to 
go. And prior to both these, I am disposed to 
believe that the waking hours of infancy are 
agreeably taken up with the exercise of vision, 
or perhaps, more properly speaking, with learn- 
ing to see. 

" But it is not for youth alone that the great 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION, 169 

Parent of creation hath provided. Happiness 
is found with the purring cat, no less than with 
the playful kitten ; in the arm-chair of dozing 
age, as well as in either the sprightliness of the 
dance or the animation of the chase." 

No one can read this passage without per- 
ceiving its truth, and deducing the inference 
that life is bestowed as a benefit by the Creator 
to the tenants of the earth, the air, and the sea, to 
fishes, insects, birds and quadrupeds. And is 
man the only exception to this beneficence? Is life 
a good to all beside, and a curse to him ? There 
seems to me to be impiety in the very thought. 
Let us look then upon life as it really is, — a 
great and good possession — good, not only as 
the means of preparing us for another and 
better world, but good in itself; a path leading 
to another country, but still a pleasant path. 
Such are the true views to be taken of life, and 
we ought to support, cultivate and cherish a 
spirit of cheerfulness, by the habitual contem- 
plation of our present existence in this aspect. 

FIDELITY. 

This virtue is displayed in the fulfilment of 
promises, whether expressed or implied, in the 
conscientious, scrupulous discharge of the du- 
ties of friendship, and in the keeping of secrets, 
15 



170 MORALS. 

It is therefore a great virtue, and may be used 
as a decisive test of character. He who has it 
is entitled to confidence and respect ; he who 
lacks it merits contempt. If a man carefully 
performs his promises, may we not confide in 
him ? If he violates them, must we not des- 
pise him ? If we find a person is true to friend- 
ship, we may be sure that he has just percep- 
tions of virtue. If we find one who betrays a 
friend, or who is guilty of any species of treache- 
ry, we cannot doubt that he is essentially base 
and corrupt. To those who cannot keep a se- 
cret, we commend an anecdote of Charles II. 
of England, which ought to engraved upon the 
heart of every man. When importuned to com- 
municate something of a private nature, the 
subtle monarch said, " Can you keep a secret?" 
"Most faithfully," returned the nobleman. " So 
can I," was the laconic and severe answer of the 
king. Let parents, who desire that their children 
should possess the respect of the community and 
enjoy the pleasures of friendship, take care to 
imbue them with fidelity of character. 

PRUDENCE. 

" Aristotle is praised for naming fortitude, the 
first of the cardinal virtues, as that without 
which no other virtue can steadily be practised ; 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 171 

but he might, with equal propriety have placed 
prudence before it, since without prudence for- 
titude is madness." The parent may cultivate 
prudence, by bestowing commendation upon 
instances of it. in a child, and rebuking its op- 
posite, rashness ; by kindly and clearly setting 
forth the advantages which result from the 
first, and the evils which spring from the last. 
There are few families, where there are chil- 
dren, that do not furnish a daily text for com- 
ments of this kind. 

COURAGE. 

This is of two kinds, physical and moral. 
The former is chiefly a constitutional endow- 
ment, though it may be cultivated by judicious 
training. It is that unflinching steadiness of 
nerve which impelled Putnam to enter the wolf's 
den, and face the grizzly brute in his very 
lair. It is a sentiment which renders an indi- 
vidual superior to a feeling of personal danger. 
It peculiarly befits the soldier and the seaman, 
and all who are called upon to exercise cool 
judgment in situations of peril. Moral courage 
is a virtue of higher cast and nobler origin. It 
springs from a consciousness of virtue, and ren- 
ders a man, in the pursuit or defence of right, 
superior to the fear of reproach, opposition or 



172 MORALS. 

contempt. You often see it in children, who, 
from a feeling of rectitude, will tell the truth, 
though it may subject them to reproof or pun- 
ishment, It is a beautiful trait of character, 
and deserves careful parental encouragement. 
It has led to many of the finest actions detailed 
in the history of mankind. It was moral cou- 
rage that sustained the apostles in undertaking 
to preach the religion of the crucified Jesus, in 
opposition to a splendid mythology, which had 
been cherished for ages, and to the support of 
which, the architect and sculptor had long con- 
secrated their genius. It was moral courage 
that sustained Wilberforce, through good report 
and evil report, in his protracted efforts to effect 
the abolition of the slave trade. It was moral 
courage that sustained Howard in his pilgrim- 
ages to hundreds of prisons, reckless of infec- 
tion and pestilence, if so be he might alleviate 
the misery of the prisoners. 

Such are a few of the higher examples of 
moral courage. But it is a virtue which may be 
called into daily exercise in the common business 
of life. It is this which induces a man, on fit 
occasions, to express his honest opinions, with- 
out regard to the unfavorable effect they may 
have upon his own interests. It is this which 
induces a man to stand by the virtuous^ when 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 173 

they chance to he unfortunate, and when pub- 
lic scorn or reproach are turned against them. 

Cowardice of all kinds is contemptible : but 
there are many fears, the seeds of which are 
cast into the childish imagination by careless 
nurses or imprudent mothers. In this way, 
vague apprehensions while in the dark, 
cold creeping fears of ghosts and apparitions, 
and various silly superstitions, are engendered. 
How much misery has been caused to indivi- 
duals by such vicious folly. All this should be 
most strictly guarded against. But of all kinds 
of cowardice, that which makes a man afraid 
to have an opinion of his own, and leads him 
always to seek to be on the strong side, is per- 
haps the most truly despicable. Physical fear 
may be involuntary, but the moral cowardice 
of the lover of popularity, the time-serving 
weathercock of opinion, evinces intrinsic and 
cherished baseness. Let parents consider these 
things well ; let them begin with the first symp- 
toms of that weakness which leads children to 
equivocate or deceive, with a view to avoid 
responsibility. Let them follow it up, and by 
constant exercise give full development to the 
moral nerve. 

In dealing with children who are marked with 
constitutional timidity, or whose imaginations 
15* 



174 MORALS* 

have become filled with unreasonable fears, by 
false instruction, I would warn parents against 
attempting to correct the evil by harsh measures. 
In some cases within my knowledge, the en- 
deavor to force timid children to be courageous, 
by placing them in situations of apparent dan- 
ger, has resulted in serious injury. I knew a 
man who had a son of fine talents, but of great 
gentleness and shrinking timidity; and, being 
ashamed of this trait in his child, he determined 
to remove it. He therefore took him on his 
own horse, and rode with him among a crowd 
of soldiers, who were discharging their muskets 
and cannon. The boy spoke not during this 
severe trial, but from that hour his cheerfulness 
deserted him. and, though he afterwards acquired 
distinction, a smile seldom visited his face, and 
his powerful intellect seemed often hovering on 
the verge of insanity. Do not attempt therefore 
to force courage. The true method of dealing 
with unreasonable fears in children, is gradually 
to accustom them to those situations which ex- 
cite their fears. It is also well to place them 
in the society of courageous children. 

SELF-GOVERNMENT. 

In the midst of events which seem to bespeak 
predestination, man still feels that he is free. 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 175 

The planets wheel through the heavens ; the 
earth revolves on its axis, and performs its vast 
annual circuit ; the seasons come and go ; the 
clouds rise and vanish ; the rain, the hail, and 
the snow descend ; and in all this man has no 
voice. There is a system of government above, 
beyond and around him, declaring a sovereignty 
which takes no counsel of him. But still, in 
the midst of all this, man possesses a conscious- 
ness of freedom. The metaphysician may be 
confounded with the seeming inconsistency of 
an omnipotence, ruling over all things, yet 
granting free agency to the subjects of its power. 
But common sense does not puzzle itself with 
an attempt to discover the precise point at which 
these seeming principles of opposition may 
clash or coalesce. It contents itself with the 
obvious fact that God is a sovereign, who has 
yet created beings, and given them their free- 
dom, prescribing boundaries to their powers 
and capacities indeed, but within these limits 
permitting them to act by their own volition. 

Man then is free ; he has the power to seek 
happiness in his own way. He enters upon 
existence and sets forward in the path of life. 
But as he passes along, a thousand tempters 
beset him. Pleasure comes to beckon him 
away, offering him present flowers, and unfold- 



1?6 MORALS. 

ing beautiful prospects in the distance. Wealth 
seeks to make him her votary, by disclosing 
her magic power over men and things. Ambi- 
tion woos him with dreams of glory. Indo- 
lence essays to soften and seduce him to her 
influence. Love, envy, malice, revenge, jeal- 
ousy, and other busy spirits, assail him with 
their various arts. And man is free to yield to 
these temptations if he will; or he has the 
power to resist them, if he will. God has sur- 
rendered him to his own discretion, making 
him responsible, however, for the use and the 
abuse of the liberty bestowed upon him. 

If a person mounts a high-spirited horse, it is 
important that he should be able to control him, 
otherwise he may be dashed in pieces. If an 
engineer undertakes to conduct a locomotive, 
it is necessary that he should be able to guide 
or check the panting engine at his pleasure, else 
his own life, and the lives of others, may be sa- 
crificed. But it is still more indispensable that 
an individual, who is entrusted with the care 
of himself, should be able to govern himself. 

This might seem a very easy task ; but it is 
one of the most difficult that we are called upon 
to perform. History shows us that some of the 
greatest men have failed in it. Alexander could 
conquer the legions of Persia, but he could not 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION- 177 

conquer his passions. Caesar triumphed in a 
hundred battles, but he fell a victim to the de- 
sire of being a king. Bonaparte vanquished 
nearly the whole of Europe, but he could not 
vanquish his own ambition. And in humbler 
life, nearer home, in our own every-day affairs, 
most of us are often drawn aside from the path 
of duty and discretion, because we cannot re- 
sist some temptation or overcome some preju- 
dice. 

If we consider that self-government requires 
two things ; first, whenever we are tempted to 
deviate from the path of rectitude or to act im- 
prudently, or whenever we are tempted to neg- 
lect any duty, that we should possess and ex- 
ercise the power to check ourselves in the one 
case, and to compel ourselves to the required 
action in the other, we shall see that it is the 
great regulator of conduct, the very balance- 
wheel of life. Without it, a person is almost 
sure to miss happiness, however great may be 
his gifts, however high his fortune ; with it, the 
humblest individual may command not merely 
the world's wealth, but the world's respect; 
and, what is better, peace of mind and the con- 
sciousness of Heaven's approbation. 

If parents would not trust a child upon the 
back of a wild horse without bit or bridle, let 



178 MORALS. 

them not permit him to go forth into the world 
unskilled in self-government. If a child is pas- 
sionate, teach him, by gentle and patient means, 
to curb his temper. If he is greedy, cultivate 
liberality in him. If he is selfish, promote 
generosity. If he is sulky, charm him out of 
it, by encouraging frank good humor. If he is 
indolent, accustom him to exertion, and train 
him so as to perform even onerous duties with 
alacrity. If pride comes in to make his obe- 
dience reluctant, subdue him, either by counsel 
or discipline. In short, give your children the 
habit of overcoming their besetting sins. Let 
them feel that they can overcome temptation. 
Let them acquire from experience that confi- 
dence in themselves which gives security to the 
practised horseman, even on the back of a high- 
strung steed, and they will triumph over the 
difficulties and dangers which beset them in 
the path of life. 

PATRIOTISM. 

Patriotism, or love of country, is a sentiment 
which pervades almost every human breast, 
and induces each individual to prefer the land 
of his birth, not because it is better than another 
country, but merely because it is his country. 
This sentiment may be illustrated by a variety 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 179 

of anecdotes. Many of the Swiss, on account 
of the poverty of their country, are induced to 
seek military service in foreign lands. Yet, in 
their voluntary exile, so strong is their affection 
for their native hills, that whole regiments have 
been said to be on the point of desertion, in 
consequence of the vivid recollections excited 
by one of their national songs. 

A French writer informs us that a native of 
one of the Asiatic isles, amid the splendors of 
Paris, beholding a banana tree in the Garden 
of Plants, bathed it with tears, and seemed for 
a moment to be transported to his own land. 
The Ethiopian imagines that God made his 
sands and deserts, while angels only were em- 
ployed in forming the rest of the world. The 
Maltese, insulated on a rock, distinguish their 
island by the appellation of " The Flower of 
the World." The Javanese have such an af- 
fection for the place of their nativity, that no 
advantages can induce them, particularly the 
agricultural tribes, to quit the tombs of their 
fathers. The Norwegians, proud of their bar- 
ren summits, inscribe upon their rix dollars, 
" Spirit, loyalty, valor, and whatever is honor- 
able, let the world learn among the rocks of 
Norway." The Esquimaux are no less attached 
to their frigid zone, esteeming the luxuries of 



180 MORALS. 

blubber oil for food, and an ice cabin for habi- 
tation, above all the refinements of other coun- 
tries. 

Such are some of the exhibitions of this uni- 
versal sentiment in less refined nations. In a 
state of higher civilization, it becomes a more 
exalted passion, and is thus beautifully ex- 
pressed by Scott : — 

" Breathes there the man, with soul so dead, 
Who never to himself hath said, 

This is my own, my native land ! 
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned, 
As home his footsteps he hath turned, 

From wand'ring on a foreign strand? 
If such there be, go, mark him well; 
For him no minstrel raptures swell ; 
High though his titles, proud his name, 
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim ; 
Despite those titles, power and pelf, 
The wretch, concentred all in self, 
Living, shall forfeit fair renown, 
And, doubly dying, shall go down 
To the vile dust, from whence he sprung, 
Unwept, unhonored and unsung." 

It might at first seem that patriotism, which 
implies a preference of one country over another, 
was opposed to philanthropy, which embraces 
in its generous scope the whole human family. 
But a consideration of the practical effect of 
patriotism will lead us not merely to dismiss all 
distrust, but to admire that dispensation of pro- 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 181 

vidence, by which the inhabitants of every land, 
whether it be a region of sterile mountains, or 
an inhospitable climate of snow, or a land flow- 
ing with milk and honey, or a desert of sand, 
are attached to the soil where their lot is cast. 
In the first place, this love is a source of con- 
tentment and happiness, even though it may be 
founded in ignorance or false comparisons ; and, 
in the second place, it excites the people to seek 
the good and promote the prosperity of the inha- 
bitants. It stimulates them to act individually 
and unitedly, and, in cases of emergency, to put 
forth great efforts in the sacred cause of coun - 
try, whether it be to realize some desirable ob- 
ject, or avert some threatened evil. 

Thus it would appear that, by implanting 
this sentiment in the breast of man, God has 
provided an active agent, the design and ten- 
dency of which are to cultivate and cherish the 
advantages which each country possesses; to 
develop its resources, to increase its comforts 
and riches, to raise the standard of civilization, 
and, in short, to promote its true glory. Such 
is the design and such the tendency of that sen- 
timent called patriotism ; and if it is more cir- 
cumscribed in its view than philanthropy, it is 
far removed from selfishness, and the bosom in 
which it dwells must be exalted and purified, 
16 



182 



MORALS. 



in proportion to the sway it is permitted to ex- 
ercise over the heart. 

Patriotism, love of country, then, is not merely 
a justifiable sentiment, but it is also ennobling 
to the soul which feels it, and beneficial to the 
community which calls it into exercise. It is 
alike dictated by nature and sanctioned by rea- 
son and religion. It becomes, therefore, a fit 
object of attention to all enlightened minds, and 
is worthy of the particular consideration of 
every one charged with the education of youth. 
While springing up spontaneously in the heart, 
it should be strengthened by all those means 
which are known to exert a strong influence on 
the young mind. Among these there is none, 
perhaps, more efficient than the exhibition of 
fine examples ; and the best and most copious 
source of them is to be found in the story of our 
revolution. The striking instance afforded by 
Mr. Reed, the president of the continental con- 
gress, who, although offered a large bribe by 
some British agents to betray his country, re- 
plied, "Gentlemen, I am poor, very poor, but, 
poor as I am, your king is not rich enough to buy 
me !" is one of those which not only furnishes 
a vivid illustration of high patriotism, but is 
likely to excite in the breast of youth a glow of 
admiration and an ardent spirit of emulation. 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 



DUTIES OF CITIZENSHIP. 



183 



Whatever may be thought of it, the govern- 
ment of a country is a matter of the greatest 
consequence. It is of consequence not only in 
a general point of view, but to each individual. 
There is not a living soul so isolated that the 
influence of government, good or bad, may not 
reach him; and, in point of fact, there are very 
few men, women or children, of any generation, 
who are not in a serious degree affected by 
government. 

We here speak not only of the form of govern- 
ment, but of the administration of it. The first 
is indeed of importance, but the latter is no less 
important; indeed, it has even been asserted 
that whatever government is best administered, 
is best. For the administration of our govern- 
ment, the people are responsible in a high de- 
gree, for they elect the individuals who admi- 
nister it, and as these are good or bad, fit or 
unfit, so is the administration of it. 

Now let it be considered, for a moment, what 
is meant by government, and we shall then see 
how immediately each individual is interested 
in it, and how deeply he may be affected by it. 
Government, then, embraces the making and 
enforcing all those laws which are designed to 



184 MORALS. 

protect life ; all those laws which are designed 
to protect property ; all those laws which should 
insure to a man the peaceable possession of his 
home, his house, and his fireside — which should 
enable him to collect around him his family in 
security, and feel persuaded that the fruit of his 
labor, his skill, and his care, is so guaranteed 
to him, that he may appropriate it to his and 
their comfort and happiness. 

Nor is this all the benefit designed to be con- 
ferred on us by government. It is this which 
should provide a system of general education ; 
it is this which should protect us in the free 
exercise of our religious opinions; it is this 
which should enforce justice between man and 
man ; it is this which should regulate com- 
merce, and render it a source of national and 
individual wealth ; it is this which should pro- 
tect the arts and sciences, and give encourage- 
ment to manufactures and agriculture, — thus 
increasing the comforts and enjoyments of the 
community. 

Such a thing is government ; it is charged 
with all the great interests of the community. 
It is designed for good ; but let us consider that 
it is as pervading as the air we breathe ; — that, 
if we bar our doors, it will still enter our houses, 
and exert an influence upon all our interests. 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 185 

But government is not a machine that goes 
regularly on, necessarily accomplishing its des- 
tined task. If it be compared to a machine, it 
is one that needs skilful and diligent care. It 
may be neglected, get into disorder, and fail of 
its proper object; or, if wickedly or selfishly 
managed, it may produce extensive and fatal 
mischief. 

Government, then, though designed for good, 
is only good when well and wisely managed. 
When ill managed, it sometimes fails of its real 
design, and, instead of good, produces real evil. 
To apply it to our own case, suppose that the 
government falls into the hands of bad men, 
who only care for themselves, and are willing 
to sacrifice the good of the people to their selfish 
schemes. What then is our situation ? Why, 
all our interests, our lives, our property, the 
peace of our homes and our firesides, the pro- 
duce of our labor, the great cause of educa- 
tion, the rights of conscience, the interests of 
justice, the paramount interests of commerce, 
agriculture, and manufactures — all the great 
sources of wealth and prosperity, all the dearest 
interests of the heart— are committed to the 
mercy of men who have no mercy ; men who 
look upon the people as their servants and their 
slaves, to be gulled, and cheated, and used, as 
their own interests may dictate ! 
16* 



186 



MORALS. 



Such must be our situation when the govern- 
ment falls into the hands of artful, selfish and 
designing men. Nor can our interests be much 
safer in the hands of a weak, ignorant or in- 
competent set of rulers. We have compared 
government to a machine. It may be illus- 
trated by a manufactory filled with various 
complicated engines, all of which are set in 
motion by a fall of water, acting upon one great 
wheel. Under a skilful and vigilant superin- 
tendent, the work goes regularly and safely 
on ; the great wheel communicates its action to 
the others, and a vast complication of wheels, 
and bands, and cogs, proceeds, with different 
degrees of celerity, indeed, but each according to 
its design, and each accomplishing the end for 
which it was intended. Thus the whole estab- 
lishment proceeds with safety and success. But 
suppose that the superintendents are ignorant, 
and do not understand the machines ; or sup- 
pose they are negligent and inattentive. Dis- 
order will soon creep into all parts of the estab- 
lishment. There will be the grating of wheels 
here, the rending of bands there, and the crush 
of cogs in another place. The great wheel will 
acquire an irregular motion; and the whole 
work, so lately a beautiful and useful contri- 
vance, will rush into a state of anarchy and 
utter ruin. 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 187 

This illustration cannot be said to impute too 
much consequence to government. Let us go 
to any country, ill governed, and compare it 
with one well governed. Look at Turkey, and 
see what desolation covers three fourths of its 
surface, and that too where the soil and climate 
are celebrated for the highest fertility ! Look 
into society, and see how dreary and comfort- 
less is the condition of the greater part of the 
people. Compare this with England, where 
the soil is naturally poor and the climate for- 
bidding, and see what a difference. In the one 
case, poverty, distrust, selfishness and ignorance 
are characteristics of the people, while wealth, 
frankness, liberality and intelligence are com- 
mon to them in the other. And a great part 
of this difference arises from the difference of 
government. A good government is, then, a 
great blessing, but a bad government is a curse. 
The Turks have a striking proverb, which bit- 
ter experience has taught them — no grass grows 
where the sultan's horse has set his foot. In 
other words, prosperity ceases and desolation 
comes wherever a selfish and unprincipled ru- 
ler has sway. 

If these things are so, what does patriotism 
dictate to an American citizen 1 Each citizen 
has the right to act in the choice of our rulers. 



188 MORALS. 

No one is deprived of this right, and no one, 
consequently, is free from the responsibility of 
using it, and using it wisely. All may vote, 
and many may exert influence upon other 
voters. This, then, is the situation of every 
American citizen — he has the power to exert a 
greater or less influence upon the choice of those 
men who govern the country; and upon this 
choice depends the happiness, the peace, the 
prosperity, of nearly fourteen millions of peo- 
ple ! Such is the vast interest at stake, and 
such the high responsibility which is laid upon 
the soul of every citizen of this free country. 
No one can shrink from the duties which follow 
from this state of things. He who uses his 
vote or his influence selfishly, basely betrays 
his country; he who uses them inconsiderately, 
puts at hazard the interests of his country ; he 
who neglects or refuses to use them, deserts his 
country, and, like a sentinel, flies from his post 
in the hour of need. 

Let us then draw a few inferences, and make 
a few observations as to the political duties of 
each American citizen. 

1. It is the duty of every American citizen 
to vote for public officers. The theory of our 
government involves the doctrine that the peo- 
ple are capable of governing themselves. And 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 189 

so they doubtless are. But what will become 
of the country if the people refuse or neglect to 
vote ? The safety of our country depends on 
having a full and fair representation at the polls 
of all classes — rich and poor, the laborer and 
the capitalist, the refined and the simple. If 
the polls are given up to any one class, will 
the rights of all be secured? No. Let every 
citizen vote then ; it is his bounden duty. 

2. It is his duty in voting to lay aside selfish 
and narrow views, and act as he conscientiously 
thinks best for the good of the whole country. 

3. He should act for no party, and with no 
party, only so far as that party tends to promote 
the good of the whole country. 

4. Public officers being public agents, or trus- 
tees, to perform certain duties, a voter should 
choose for the public as for himself; he should 
take care never to aid in electing an artful and 
dishonest man, for he may betray. He should 
try a candidate, strictly, by the questions pro- 
posed by Mr. Jefferson, — Is he capable ? Is he 
honest ? Is he a friend to the Constitution ? 

5. The Scripture says, " put not thy trust in 
princes." We may add, put not thy trust in 
politicians ! Our real safety is in the honesty of 
the people. If they are dishonest, or corrupt, or 
ignorant, or negligent, we are exposed to ruin. 



190 MORALS. 

The child will partake of the diseases of the 
father ; the government of the country, where 
the people rule, will be like the people, good or 
evil. Is there any man among us so bad as to 
aid in debasing, corrupting, destroying our go- 
vernment 1 Let each man read, examine, pon- 
der, and act intelligently and honestly. Let 
the people act in such a manner as to make 
politicians see that honesty is their best policy, 
and then they will be honest — not otherwise ! 

6. Political virtue, like all other virtue, con- 
sists partly in self-sacrifice, or rather in consi- 
dering our own interests only as they make part 
of the whole. The spirit of '76 was of this 
character ; it was a spirit of self-forgetfulness, 
self-denial, self-sacrifice. These times of peace 
may not demand the same acts of virtue, but 
they demand the same kind of virtue. Let no 
man, who values a pure conscience, or seeks a 
good name, be found sacrificing the country to 
his own love of office, or power, or fame. Let 
no one, who values his independence, be made 
the dupe of such as do these things. 

7. This right of voting is a great matter. It 
is a thing for which millions are yearning in 
other lands. Let us not abuse it. It is a vast 
power. It gives into our hands the destiny of 
millions. Will any one trifle with it? Will 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 191 

any one abuse it? Will any one sell it? Who 
has the knavery to confess to himself or the 
world that he will lay this mighty talent up, 
unused and useless, in a napkin; or that he 
will use it according to his prejudices; or make 
it the instrument of his own ambition; or throw 
it away upon friendship, or family aggrandize- 
ment, or any other narrow, personal considera- 
tion? Who is the man that can look into his 
own bosom and confess that he can forget his 
country, forswear patriotism, and do these, or 
any of these things ? 

8. If it is said that it is sometimes difficult 
to choose between candidates for office, let us 
bear in mind one rule — that it is never safe 
to promote the political schemes of designing, 
selfish managers. An artful, cunning intriguer 
for office is always to be shunned by honest 
voters. 

9. We who vote are acting for ourselves and 
our children. We may spoil the great and good 
work of our forefathers ; we shall do it if we are 
not careful ! Who will aid in the destruction 
of this fabric, which has excited the admiration 
of the wcrld, and go into the land of spirits, 
and say to their sires and grandsires, we have 
done what we could to destroy your work ? 

Such appear to be the views which every 



192 MORALS. 

American citizen should take of his political 
duties, and in these, at the proper age, ought not 
fathers carefully to instruct their sons '? Ought 
they not to teach them that we are as truly bound 
to be honest and true in dealing with the coun- 
try as with our fellow-men ? Ought they not to 
warn them against the infamous maxim, current 
with some people, that "all is fair in politics V 1 

PERSEVERANCE. 

Perseverance, the steady pursuit of a lauda- 
ble and lawful object, is almost a sure path to 
eminence. It is a thing which seems to be inher- 
ent in some, but it may be cultivated in all. Even 
those children who seem to be either indolent like 
the sloth, or changeful as the butterfly, by the 
skilful training of a watchful parent, may be en- 
dowed with the habit of perseverance. The fol- 
lowing anecdotes may aid in illustrating to youth 
the nature and value of this virtue. The cele- 
brated Timour the Tartar, after a series of the 
most brilliant victories, was at length conquered 
and made captive. Though confined in a prison, 
whose massive walls and thick iron bars dis- 
couraged every attempt to escape, he still strove 
at each chink and crevice to find some way 
of deliverance. At length, weary and dispirit- 
ed, he sat down in a corner of his gloomy pri- 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 193 

son, and gave himself up to despair. While 
brooding over his sorrows, an ant, with a piece 
of wood thrice as large as itself, attracted his 
attention. The insect seemed desirous to as- 
cend the perpendicular face of the wall, and 
made several attempts to effect it. But, after 
reaching a little elevation, it came to a jutting 
angle of the stone, and fell backward to the 
floor. But again, again, and again the attempt 
was renewed. The monarch watched the 
struggles of the insect, and in the interest thus 
excited forgot his own condition. The ant 
persevered, and at the sixtieth trial surmounted 
the obstacle. Timour sprang to his feet, ex- 
claiming, " / will never despair — perseverance 
conquers all things!" 

A similar anecdote is told of Robert Bruce, 
the restorer of the Scottish monarchy. Being 
out on an expedition to reconnoitre the enemy, 
he had occasion to sleep at night in a barn. In 
the morning, still reclining his head on a pillow 
of straw, he beheld a spider climbing up a beam 
of the roof. The insect fell to the ground, but 
immediately made a second essay to ascend. 
This attracted the notice of the hero, who, with 
regret, saw the spider fall a second time from 
the same eminence. It made a third unsuc- 
cessful attempt. Not without a mixture of con- 
17 



194 MORALS. 

cern and curiosity, the monarch twejve times 
beheld the insect baffled in its aim; but the 
thirteenth essay was crowned with success. It 
gained the summit of the barn, and the king, 
starting from his couch, exclaimed, " This des- 
picable insect has taught me perseverance ! T 
will follow its example. Have I not been twelve 
times defeated by the enemy's superior force? 
On one fight more hangs the independence of 
my country ! " In a few days, his anticipations 
were fully realized, by the glorious result, to 
Scotland, of the battle of Bannockburn. 

A few years since, while travelling in an ad- 
jacent state, I came to a little valley, surrounded 
by rocky and precipitous hills. In that valley 
was a single house. It was old, and, by its 
irregularity of form, seemed to have been built 
at various periods. It was, however, in good 
condition, and bespoke thrift and comfort. Not 
a shingle was missing from the roof, no dang- 
ling clapboards disfigured its sides, no unhinged 
blinds swung idly in the wind, no old hats 
were thrust through the windows. All around 
was tidy and well-conditioned. The wood- 
house was stored with tall ranges of hickory, 
the barns were ample, and stacks of hay with- 
out declared that it was full within. The 
soil around, as I have said, was rocky, but 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 195 

cultivation had rendered it fertile. Thriving 
orchards, rich pastures and prolific meadows 
occupied the bed of the valley and the rugged 
sides of the hills. I was struck with the scene, 
and, when I reached a village at the distance 
of two or three miles, I made some inquiries, 
where I learnt the story of the proprietor. He 
was originally a poor boy, and wholly depen- 
dent upon his own exertions. He was brought 
up as a farmer, and began life as a day laborer. 
In childhood, he had read that " procrastination 
is the thief of time." He did not at first un- 
derstand its meaning, and pondered long upon 
this desperate thief, Avho bore the formidable 
title of Procrastination. It was at length ex- 
plained to him ; but the struggles he had made 
to comprehend the adage fixed it deep in his 
mind. He often thought of it, and, feeling its 
force, it became the ruling maxim of his life. 
Following its dictates with inflexible persever- 
ance, he at length became proprietor of the lit- 
tle valley I have described. Year by year it 
improved under his care, and, at the period of 
which I am speaking, he was supposed to be 
worth at least twenty thousand dollars. 

Such is the force of perseverance. It gives 
power to weakness, and opens to poverty the 
world's wealth. It spreads fertility over the 



196 MORALS. 

barren landscape, and bids the choicest fruits 
and flowers spring up and flourish in the desert 
abode of thorns and briers. Look at Boston ! 
Where are the three hills which first met the 
view of the pilgrims as they sailed up its bay 1 
Their tops are shorn down by man's perse- 
verance. Look at the granite hills of Qxiincy ! 
Proudly anchored in the bosom of the earth, 
they seem to defy the puny efforts of man, but 
they are yielding to man's perseverance. For- 
bidding and hopeless as they would appear to 
the eye of indolence and weakness, they are 
better than the treasures of Peru, and the gem- 
strewn mountains of Brazil, to a people endowed 
with the hardy spirit of perseverance ! They 
are better, for, while they enable them to com- 
mand the precious metals yielded by other 
climes, they cherish a spirit and a power which 
all the gold of Golconda could not purchase. 

INDUSTRY. 

Let me say a word in behalf of this home- 
spun virtue. It may seem superfluous, perhaps 
impertinent, to enforce industry upon the hard- 
est working people in the world, as I conceive 
our good countrymen to be ; but I speak of 
it as a part of education — as a principle to be 
inculcated upon childhood. Its proper limits I 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 197 

shall hereafter attempt to define. In this coun- 
try, it is the duty of every individual to live an 
active life. No one, even though he be rich, 
has a right to be idle or useless. In the hive of 
bees, there is a privileged class of drones ; but 
there the government is despotic, with a queen 
at its head. Ours is a republican government, 
which admits of no drones, and tolerates no 
aristocratic indolence. Nor is industry more 
a duty to society than a source of individual 
happiness. There are no pleasures so sweet as 
those earned by effort, no possessions so dear as 
those acquired by toil. The truth is that the 
main happiness of life consists in the vigorous 
exercise of those faculties which God has given 
us. Thus it usually happens that more enjoy- 
ment is found in the acquisition of property 
than in its possession. How often does the rich 
man, surrounded with every luxury, look back 
from the pinnacle which he has attained, with 
fond regret, to those days of humble but happy 
toil when he was struggling up the steep ascent 
of fortune ! 

Make industry, then, a part of fireside edu- 
cation. Teach it to your children as a point of 
duty; render it familiar to them by practice. 
Personal exertion and ready activity are natu- 
ral to some children, and these hardly need any 
17* 



198 MORALS. 

stimulus to the performance of duties requiring 
bodily exertion. There are others who have an 
indolence, a reluctance to move, either uniform 
or periodical, in their very constitution. If neg- 
lected, these children will grow up in the habit 
of omitting many duties, or of performing only 
those which are agreeable. It is indispensable 
that such should be trained to patient exertion, 
habituated to the performance of every duty in 
the right time and the right way, even though 
it may require self-denial and onerous toil. A 
person who cannot compel himself, from a mere 
sense of duty, to overcome a slothful reluctance 
to do what is disagreeable, is but half educated, 
and carries about him a weakness that is likely 
to prove fatal to his success in life. Such a 
person may act vigorously by fits and starts, as 
he may be occasionally urged by impulse : but 
the good begun will often remain unfinished, 
and, from subsequent negligence, will result in 
final disaster. The only safe way is to found 
industry upon principle and establish it by 
habit. To show children the benefits of this 
virtue, and enlist their reason in its favor, pa- 
rents may recount to them the following tale. 

In the northwestern part of Asia, there is a 
famous city, called Bagdat. The people here 
believe in the existence of certain spiritual be- 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 199 

ings, whom they call genii. Like fairies, they 
are supposed to have great power, and to hold 
intercourse with mankind. All this is, of course, 
a mere matter of fancy, but it will answer the 
present purpose as well ac if it were true. There 
was once in this city of Bagdat a little boy, who 
was poor, and obliged to earn his daily bread by 
rearing flowers in a small garden. As the price 
of flowers in that luxuriant climate is extremely 
low, the boy was compelled to be very industri- 
ous, in order to obtain necessary food and cloth- 
ing. But still he had good health, and he ate 
his coarse meal with high relish and satisfac- 
tion. But this was not his greatest pleasure ; 
his flowers were a perpetual source of enjoy- 
ment. They were his flowers ; he planted them, 
he watered them, pruned and nurtured them. 
Beside all this, they were the source of his live- 
lihood. They gave him bread, shelter and rai- 
ment. He therefore loved them as if they were 
his companions. He saw them spring out of 
the ground with pleasure ; he watched the bud- 
ding leaves and unfolding flowers with delight. 
But, at length, discontent sprung up in his 
mind, and in the evening of a hot day he sat 
down in his garden and began to murmur. " I 
wish," said he, Ci that flowers would plant and 
prune and water themselves. I am tired of this 



200 MORALS. 

incessant toil. Would that some good genius 
would step in and bring me flowers already- 
made, so that I might be saved all this trouble." 
Scarcely had he uttered this thought, when a 
beautiful being, with bright wings, stood before 
him, and said, "You called me, boy; what do 
you desire?" "I am weary of my employ- 
ment," said the boy. "I live by cultivating 
flowers. I am obliged to toil, day by day, with 
unceasing industry, and I am only able to ob- 
tain my daily bread. If I mistake not, you are 
a kind and powerful genius, who can give me 
flowers if you will, and save me all this toil." 
" Here ! " said the genius, holding forth a beau- 
tiful fan of feathers, " take this; wave it over 
the earth in your flower-pots, and the brightest 
blossoms of Cashmere will spring up at your 
bidding !" Saying this, the spirit departed. 

The little boy received the charmed fan 
with great delight, and waved it over one of 
his flower-pots. A bud immediately shot up 
through the soil, gradually unfolded itself, and 
in a few minutes a beautiful moss-rose, bloom- 
ing and fragrant, stood before him ! I need 
not describe the transports of the little gar- 
dener. He found his charmed fan to be just the 
thing he had desired. He had now no labor 
to perform — a few sweeps of his fan brought 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 201 

him all the flowers he needed. He therefore 
spent his time in luxurious indolence. Things 
went on very well for a fortnight. But now, a 
different kind of weariness began to creep over 
him. His appetite, too, failed by degrees, and 
he no longer enjoyed his meals. He lost his 
interest, too, in the flowers. He saw no beauty 
in their bloom — their very odor became sicken- 
ing. The poor boy was unhappy, and again 
began to murmur. "I wish," said he, "the 
genius would come back and take away this 
foolish fan." In a moment the bright being 
was standing at his side. "Here," said the 
boy, handing forth the fan, "take back the 
charm you gave me. Forgive me, sweet ge- 
nius, but I was mistaken. The weariness of 
indolence is far worse than the weariness of 
industry. I loved the flowers which were pro- 
duced by my own skill and care ; but things 
which cost nothing are worth nothing. Take 
back the charm, and leave me to that hum- 
ble happiness which my own industry can 
secure, but which your potent spell would chase 
away." 

Such is the fable ; and you may, by repeat- 
ing it to children, make them understand the 
benefits and feel the duty of industry. If, after 
telling them the tale, they desire a charm, more 



202 MORALS. 

powerful than that of the eastern fairy, you 
may give them this, — 

Ne'er till to-morrow's light delay 

What may as well be done to-day ; 

Ne'er do to-day what on the morrow 

Will wring your heart with sighs and sorrow. 

But let me add one word of caution, here, to 
parents. Though industry be a duty, yet labor 
should have its limits. It is not only true of 
children, but of grown-up people, that '-all work 
and no play makes Jack a dull boy." And is 
it not matter of fact that many of the good peo- 
ple of our country run into the error of exces- 
sive devotion to business 1 It appears to me 
that we are the most laborious people in the 
world. Day and night we are perpetually 
" grinding at the mill." I have noticed in Eng- 
land, that, when the hours of labor are over, the 
mind relaxes from its cares. The merchant, in 
turning his key upon his counting-room, shuts 
in his restless plans and projects, and goes home 
to spend the evening sociably, with his family. 
The farmer, also, and the mechanic, follow a 
similar custom. Nothing indeed is more plea- 
sant than to see the sociable and cheerful 
manner in which these English families, of all 
classes, spend their evening leisure. But it is 
very different with us. When the sun is set 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 203 

and the farmer is by his fireside, he is too often 
silent, in cogitations about the farm. The mer- 
chant, though he has left his daybook and leger 
behind, is still moody and absent-minded in the 
midst of his family, for his thoughts are run- 
ning on business. This is all wrong. During 
the hours of business, a. man must pursue it 
with vigor, if he means to obtain success. But 
he should still give himself several hours of 
relaxation each day. This is necessary for 
health, and indispensable to cheerfulness of 
mind. Beside, the claims of society demand 
that every individual should spend some portion 
of his time in easy and pleasant intercourse 
with friends, neighbors or general society. Pa- 
rents, above all, are bound to keep up a lively 
and pleasant sociability in their families, so 
that home may be rendered agreeable to the 
children and happy to all. 

While, therefore, I would inculcate industry, 
I would remark that it may be carried to excess. 
Every virtue has its bordering vice. The ex- 
treme of courage touches upon the precincts of 
rashness, and a step beyond the proper limit of 
industry brings you into the dreary regions 
of avarice. The reason why we are peculiarly 
exposed to this error in America seems to be 
this, that, in every department of life, the harvest 



204 



MORALS. 



is great and the laborers comparatively few. On 
every hand, fields of enterprise are opening and 
beckoning adventurers to thrust in the sickle. 
This is the powerful excitement, operating upon 
every individual, to put forth his utmost exer- 
tions, and it has the effect to induce almost 
every man to undertake a little more than he 
can well attend to. Thus, like Issachar of old, 
he becomes a strong ass crouching down be- 
tween two burdens. He is rendered the slave 
of business, and, making the same mistake as 
the miser, who fancies that gold is an end, and 
not a means, he thinks that life is made to be 
spent in the hurry and turmoil of business, and 
not that business is, to some extent at least, an 
instrument by which higher and better enjoy- 
ments are to be secured. If this be true, — if 
we Americans are exposed to peculiar tempta- 
tions in this matter, let us be wise, and correct 
the mistake into which we have fallen. 

ORDER AND NEATNESS. 

These two virtues generally go together, and 
you seldom see one without the other. In illus- 
tration of their benefits on the one hand, and 
the evils which result from their neglect on the 
other, let me introduce to the notice of the read- 
er the following sketches, which he may have 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 205 

seen before. They are pictures of village life, 
but lessons may be drawn from them to suit the 
city, as well as the farm-house and cottage. 

The village of Decay is situated somewhere 
in New England. The land is good, and the 
people have all the means of comfort and hap- 
piness, but they don't know exactly how to use 
them. We shall give a sketch of Capt. Seth 
Wideopen's house, which is a sample of the 
whole town. Capt. Wideopen, by the way, is 
a good sort of man enough, and is well off, as 
the saying goes. He has two hundred acres of 
land ; but he has not the good sense to observe 
the advice of the old rhymes, — 

" 'T is folly in the extreme to till 
Extensive fields and till them ill. 
The farmer, pleased, may boast aloud 
His bushels sown, his acres ploughed, 
And, pleased, indulge the cheering hope 
That time will bring a plenteous crop. 
Shrewd common sense sits laughing by, 
And sees his hopes abortive die ; 
For, when maturing seasons smile, 
Thin sheaves shall disappoint his toil. 
Advised, this empty pride expel ; 
Till little, and that little well. 
Of taxing, fencing, toil, no more 
Your ground requires when rich than poor j 
And more one fertile acre yields 
Than the huge breadth of barren fields," 

The captain is also ignorant of the advan- 
18 



206 MORALS. 

tages to be found in following the injunctions 
laid down by the same writer, as follows : — 

" Neat be your farms : 't is long confessed 
The neatest farmers are the best. 
Each bog and marsh, industrious, drain 
Nor let vile balks deform the plain ; 
No bushes on your headlands grow, 
Nor briers a sloven's culture show. 
Neat be your barns, your houses neat, 
Your doors be clean, your court-yards sweet j 
No moss the sheltering roof enshroud, 
No wooden panes the window cloud, " 
No filthy kennels foully flow, 
Nor weeds with rankling poison grow ; 
But shades expand, and fruit-trees bloom, 
And flowering shrubs exhale perfume. 
With pales your garden circle round ; 
Defend, enrich, and clean the ground ; 
Prize high this pleasing, useful rood, 
And fill with vegetable good." 

The fact is that there is more comfort in neat- 
ness and order than most people think of. There 
is also much virtue in these things. They 
stamp themselves, after long habit, on the mind 
and heart, and, to some extent, mould the intel- 
lectual and moral character. No being but a 
pig is happy and at ease in the midst of filth 
and. confusion ; and if a person, by living among 
them for a long time, gets reconciled to them, 
he is so far depraved and degraded toward the 
standard of one of the lowest of the brute crea- 
tion. 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 207 

But to be a little more particular. Capt. 
Wideopeu's house stands on a broad street, that 
runs for a mile in length through the village of 
Decay. It is an old farm-house, one story high, 
with its gable end to the street. In front of the 
house is the wood-pile, spread out so as to 
cover a rood of ground. As you pass by, the 
barn, cow-house, and yard, with its deep mo- 
rass of manure in high flavor, salute the eye 
and nose. The pig-pen, wide open and in full 
view, is between the house and barn. In a 
warm day the congregation of vapors is over- 
whelming. The well, the wash-shed, the wood- 
shed, all are in full view to the passers by. 
The space around the front door is defiled by 
the pigs, who root and grunt there by day, and 
by the geese, who roost there by night. 

Thus all the unsightly and unseemly objects 
are spread out to view, and the scene is embel- 
lished by the addition of broken sleighs, sleds, 
ploughs, wagons, carts, old posts, &c. There 
lies a shapeless heap of stones ; yonder is a 
gate hanging by one hinge, which will soon be 
broken for want of care. Here is a pair of bars 
thrown down ; there the stone wall has tumbled 
over ! 

Such is the scene presented by the residence 
of a wealthy, respectable fanner in New Eng- 



208 



MOEAtS. 



land ; and I am sorry to say that there ard 
hundreds, nay thousands, like it in New Eng- 
land — ay, in New England ! Not that every 
village is a Decay, or every farmer a Wide- 
open. No ! some of our villages are delight- 
ful, and some of our country people are pat- 
terns of good order and neatness. But I am 
speaking of those who are not so. And if these 
pages should come into the hands of any per- 
son, in New England or out of it, who is igno- 
rant of the advantages of neatness and order, 
let me urge upon him, as worthy of immediate 
attention, the following remarks, drawn from 
observation and experience. 

1. A man, whose house, like Capt. Wideo- 
pen's, is out-of-doors marked by disorder, con- 
fusion, and want of cleanliness, is generally the 
same in-doors. 

2. Where there is confusion and want of 
neatness, though there may be plenty of bread, 
butter, milk, cheese, fuel, clothing, and other 
necessaries, there is little comfort, little thrift, 
little good nature, little kindness, little religion, 
little beauty, little peace or happiness. 

3. Children brought up in the midst of con- 
fusion and want of cleanliness, are likely to 
be low, vulgar, and vicious in their tastes i nd 
in their character. Let fathers and mothers 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 209 

consider that, if they bring up their children in 
this way, they are schooling them to be drunk- 
ards, profane, mean, base, wicked and despised ; 
that the schooling of home is the most lasting of 
all schooling; that the ferule of the schoolmaster 
cannot efface what the father and mother have 
taught ; that the preacher cannot destroy the die 
stamped upon the young heart at home by pa- 
rental example ! Look to this, ye fathers and 
mothers, and if for your own sakes ye are indif- 
ferent to neatness and order, for the sake of the 
young immediately around you be no longer so ! 

4. There is a constant tendency in the want 
of order and neatness to cause ruin and waste ; 
consequently a man who, like Capt. Wideopen, 
allows things to go on in this way, generally 
gets poorer and poorer, till at length mortgages, 
embarrassment, debt, losses, and the law, bring 
him to poverty. 

5. Neatness and good order contribute to 
health, wealth, and happiness; while opposite 
habits tend to disease, misery, poverty, vice and 
short life. 

Let us now turn to another scene. The vil- 
lage of Thrivewell is also a New-England vil- 
lage, and is remarkable for its pleasant, cheerful 
aspect. Every person who rides through it is 
delighted ; and the place has such a reputation, 
18* 



210 MORALS. 

that the land is worth more, and the houses will 
sell for more, than in almost any other place 
of the kind you can name. And this arises 
from the good taste, neatness, and order, which 
characterize the inhabitants. I will give you a 
sketch of the house belonging to Capt. John 
Pepperidge; a careful, correct, upright man, 
who has risen from poverty, to ease and com- 
petence, by industry, economy, and prudence. 

His house stands three or four rods back from 
the street; the front yard is green, grassy, and 
decorated with handsome trees. The wood-pile 
is fenced in; the barn-yard, pig-pen, &c, are 
also tidily fenced. It is a favorite proverb with 
Pepperidge that there should be a place for every 
thing, and that every thing should be in its place. 
This is his great maxim; and he not only 
observes it himself, but he requires every man, 
woman and child about him to observe it also. 
He says it saves him one hundred dollars a year. 

He has other rules, such as a stitch in time 
saves nine: thus, as soon as a stone falls off 
the wall, he puts it up ; when a rail gets out 
of the fence, he replaces it; when a gate is 
broken, it is forthwith repaired ; if a clapboard 
is loose, a nail clenches it. Thus, matters are 
kept tight and tidy. Of a wet day, instead of 
going to the tavern, he spends the time in mak- 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 211 

ing little repairs. At odd moments of leisure, 
he sets out trees and shrubs ; thus, year by year, 
beautifying his place, and rendering it not only 
more comfortable, but also worth more money, 
in case he should ever desire to sell it. 

Capt. Pepperidge takes great pleasure, and 
perhaps a little innocent pride, in his place, 
though, to say the truth, it is by no means costly. 
He loves better to spend his time in making 
it more convenient and pleasant, in setting 
out trees, improving the grounds, mending the 
fences, &c., than in going about to talk politics, 
or gossip upon other people's business, or in 
haunting a tavern bar-room. In short, his home 
is comfortable, pleasant, delightful. It is neat 
and orderly, inside and out. And he has made 
it so ; though his wife, having happily caught 
the influence of his example, contributes her 
share to the good work. His children are well 
dressed, well educated, well behaved. Can such 
a man be a drunkard ? Can he be vicious 1 
Can he be wicked ? Who has so good a chance 
of health, wealth, and happiness? Who so 
likely to be respected by his neighbors? Who 
so likely to do good by his influence and exam- 
ple ? Come, Capt. Wideopen, I pray you, and 
learn a lesson of farmer Pepperidge ! 

Let us look at the practical effect of Pep- 



212 MORALS. 

peridge's example. Formerly the Tillage of 
Thrivewell was called Uneasy Swamp, and 
was inhabited by a set of people becoming the 
name. They were poor, ignorant, idle and 
uneasy. They were jealous of all rich people, 
and considered the unequal distribution of pro- 
perty a dreadful evil. They were equally jeal- 
ous of the wise, and considered the unequal 
distribution of knowledge a nuisance to be 
abated. They were also jealous of the virtu- 
ous, and hated nothing so much as a just and 
honest man. In short, they were, half a cen- 
tury ago, where some conceited but ignorant 
and ill-minded people are now, willing to level 
every body and thing to their own standard. 
If a candidate for office was up, who addressed 
their prejudices, and coaxed them with pro- 
mises, though meaning to cheat them, he was 
the man for them. If he was known to be 
mean, slippery and unprincipled, fellow-feeling 
seemed to render them kind, and the more ar- 
dently they espoused his cause. Such was 
Uneasy Swamp ; a place which may have its 
image still in some parts of the country. 

But Pepperidge came among the people and 
set them a good example. They persecuted 
him, reviled him, hated him, ridiculed him, 
broke down his fences at night, and played him 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 213 

Sundry mischievous tricks. But he was patient, 
and tough, in his patience, as the tree that gave 
him a name; and he overcame them at last. 
One by one, the villagers began to imitate him. 
The small brown houses* gradually lost their 
look of squalidness and disorder. The Swamp 
emerged from its shadow, and became a cul- 
tivated valley. The little farmers and the 
humble mechanics rose from their degraded 
condition ; education spread its light ; industry 
and frugality showered down their blessings; 
and Uneasy Swamp became the flourishing vil- 
lage of Thrivewell. 

And thus, though none of the people are what 
is called rich, none are poor. The small houses 
are neat, and the fruit-trees, the blossoming 
shrubs, the green grass, around them, declare 
that the people are happy. They are not mad 
in the foolish chase for riches, which is destroy- 
ing more peace in this country than all the 
bodily diseases our flesh is heir to. They are 
now, from better knowledge, satisfied that the 
rich man shall possess his wealth, both because 
they perceive that, generally speaking, the la- 
boring classes are the happiest, and that the 
security of property is the only steady impulse 
to economy, industry, providence, and the other 
important village virtues. They are more fond 



214 MORALS. 

of knowledge, for they perceive that it increases 
their power of being happy. They respect 
talent and wisdom, for they know that these 
are gifts sent by Heaven for the guidance of 
man to happiness. In politics, they are staunch 
republicans, but always give their votes for 
men of sterling integrity. A man who has the 
general character of being an artful, intriguing 
office-seeker, has no chance with them. They 
are perhaps a little prejudiced against cities and 
city people. If they ever have any thing to do 
with a lawyer, they go to one who has been 
bred in the country, and one who was in early 
life a farmer. They think, and, perhaps, justly, 
that while this rustic breeding gives a man an 
habitually honest and plain turn of mind, it 
also renders him more knowing, sagacious, and 
favorable in his feelings, in respect to country 
people. 

I cannot better close this sketch than by in- 
troducing some lines which are much esteemed 
in the village of Thrivewell. Every man, wo- 
man and child there knows them by heart. 

" Let order o'er your time preside, 
And method all your business guide. 
Early begin and end your toil, 
Nor let great tasks your hands embroil j 
One thing at once be still begun, 
Contrived, resolved, pursued, and done. 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 215 

Hire not for what yourselves can do, 

And send not when yourselves can go; 

Nor till to-morrow's light delay 

What might as well be done to-day. 

By steady efforts all men thrive, 

And long - by moderate labor live ; 

While eager toil and anxious care, 

Health, strength, and peace, and life impair. 

Nor think a life of toil severe ; 

No life has blessings so sincere. 

Its meals so luscious, sleep so sweet, 

Such vigorous limbs, such health complete, 

No mind so active, brisk, and gay, 

As his who toils the livelong day. 

A life of sloth drags hardly on ; 

Suns set too late and rise too soon. 

Youth, manhood, age, all linger slow 

To him who nothing has to do. 

The drone, a nuisance to the hive, 

Stays, but can scarce be said to live ; 

And well the bees, those judges wise, 

Plague, chase, and sting him till he dies." 



WARNINGS. 

In proportion as virtue is beautiful, vice is 
marked with deformity ; and as one deserves to 
be sought, the other must be shunned. I have 
endeavored to impress upon parents the impor- 
tance of inculcating virtuous principles in the 
hearts of their children, and I have incidentally 
warned them against the besetting danger of 
various vices. But this last is a point of so 
much importance, that it seems proper to make 
it the subject of particular comment. 



£16 



MORALS. 



One of the most common, and, if we consider 
all the temptations to which children are ex- 
posed, one of the most venial vices of childhood, 
is falsehood. It manifests itself in various 
ways, — in direct lying, in deception, artifice, 
tergiversation, misrepresentation, equivocation, 
exaggeration, (fee. There may he a difference 
in children as to the facility with which they 
adopt these faults, but I believe that falsehood 
is spontaneous in very few of them. Truth is 
natural to children, and if they resort to any 
form of deception, it is, in almost all cases, 
through the infection of bad example. A child 
does not lie until he perceives some advantage 
to result from it — either the attainment of some 
good, or escape from some evil. And who 
teaches him this policy % Either his little com- 
panions or the grown-up people around him. 

But however the vice of deception may origi- 
nate, it is one of the most hurtful and danger- 
ous to which children are exposed. Like a 
thrifty weed, it grows rapidly from small begin- 
nings, and soon engrosses the whole soil, to 
the exclusion of useful plants. It deadens the 
mind to the beauty of truth, and, after long 
indulgence, blinds the moral vision, so that it 
cannot clearly discover the path of rectitude. 
It displaces frankness, and substitutes slyness ; 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. »!• 

it roots out honesty, and weaves over the whole 
character a revolting tissue of trick, artifice and 
subterfuge. Let parents, therefore, deal vigi- 
lantly with this vice, and eradicate it in all its 
forms. If a root or fibre is left in the heart, it 
will soon or late shoot forth and flourish. 

Cunning is the legitimate offspring of false- 
hood, and ever merits reprobation and contempt. 
I know of no person more generally feared, 
shunned and despised, than one who has ac- 
quired the reputation of being cunning. He is 
generally compared to a snake in the grass, 
which slides unseen around your path, and, 
without giving you the opportunity of escape 
or defence, is ready to make you the victim of 
his selfishness or spleen. If you would not 
leave the image of the serpent stamped upon 
the character of your child, be careful to check 
in him every tendency to cunning. 

Envy reflects more disgrace upon human na- 
ture than any other passion. It seems so un- 
natural, and so exclusively useless and hurtful, 
that we cannot but wonder how it came into the 
world. Stripped of all disguise, it is hatred of 
another, excited by the perception of his superi- 
ority in some respect. Thus beauty, wealth, 
strength, talents, virtue, the best gifts of Heaven, 
beget this hateful passion. And let it be remem- 
19 



218 MORALS. 

bered that envy is not a sluggish or inactive prin- 
ciple; it is not content to gaze only at the hap- 
piness of another, but it stimulates the bosom in 
which it resides to exertion, for the purpose of 
despoiling the fortunate and the successful of 
their enjoyments. Let it also be considered that 
while this passion tends to evil in respect to the 
object which excites it, it also stings the heart 
in which it lives, without even affording the 
poor atonement of transient gratification. It 
might seem that mankind would be careful to 
exclude a drug of such unmixed bitterness from 
the cup which they put to their lips. But it is 
still largely mixed, either by accident or voli- 
tion, in the thoughts and feelings which make 
up the every-day draught of society. It is to 
envy that we may trace the spicy scandal, and 
the detractive gossip, which circulate with such 
electric energy in our towns, cities and villages. 
It is to envy that we may attribute that odious 
triumph, with which we sometimes see people 
trample on an individual, whom misfortune has 
hurled down from some elevated station. It is 
to envy we may attribute much of that sour 
discontent with which the poor or the less 
wealthy look upon the rich. It is to envy we 
may impute the malice with which the coarse 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 219 

and vulgar look upon the refined, and with 
which the vicious regard the virtuous. 

Let parents beware of this pestilent disturber 
of human peace. If they are poor, let their 
children by no means indulge envy towards the 
rich. No person should be hated either because 
he is rich or poor. Above all, let not parents 
infuse a poison into the minds of their children, 
which can bestow no pleasure, and ensures cer- 
tain misery. Let them especially beware of 
those meddling people, who, knowing the readi- 
ness with which envy springs up in the minds 
of men, seek to promote it, and thus agitate so- 
ciety with strife and contention. In almost 
every village, town, and city, there are some 
persons of this sort. Even at school we often 
find some beardless politician attempting to ex- 
cite the children of the poor against those of 
the rich, by accusing the latter of pride, which 
probably they do not feel ; and we need not go 
far to find similar politicians in grown-up so- 
ciety. Of all people in the world, these are 
most to be shunned ; for while they are ever 
swayed by sinister and selfish designs, and 
while their exertions only tend to mischief, the 
weakness of poor human nature is still apt to 
give them influence. It is the duty, it is the 
interest of all to cultivate peace, good-will, 



220 MofiAiS, 

good-neighborhood in society. Who then would 
endeavor to give up society to the demon of 
envy ? Who would give encouragement to the 
ministers of this mischievous spirit 7 Who 
would aid in scattering discord and strife among 
the members of the human family ? 

Jealousy is a twin sister of envy, and the 
two may often be seen hand in hand, helping 
each other in the work of mischief. Suspicion 
is of the same bad family, and, like its kindred, 
perpetually seeks to extend its power over the 
individual into whose breast it has gained ad- 
mittance. It drives away the nobler virtues, 
and at length takes possession of the whole 
tenement. When it has acquired complete 
sway, it degrades the mind and debases the 
heart. It suggests evil thoughts of others, be- 
cause the place where it dwells is evil. There 
is no surer sign that the core of a man's heart 
is thus rendered unsound by the worm within, 
than to see him constantly suspecting others of 
vice or meanness. It is pitiable to see some 
persons, stung with this malady, who are con- 
stantly seeking to give a bad interpretation to 
the conduct of others. These usually assume 
an air of superior sagacity, and, pretending to 
penetrate the hearts of men with a moral mi- 
croscope of their own, trace the best and most 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 221 

benevolent actions to a polluted fountain. Such 
persons are self-deceivers, and, instead of being 
wiser than others, they are usually mistaken, 
and are very unsafe counsellors. Regulated by no 
sense of justice, and guided by no feeling of 
candor, they judge ill of others only from a 
consciousness of the evil springing up within 
themselves. Instead of throwing light upon 
the breasts of others, they only reflect what is 
passing in their own bosom. It may be laid 
down as an infallible rule, that a person is ca- 
pable of any meanness or any wickedness of 
which he needlessly suspects another. 

Let parents beware, then, of this noxious 
vice in children. Simplicity is better than sus- 
picion. It is better to be sometimes duped than 
to carry about, in one's breast, a viper that is 
constantly suggesting evil opinions of brothers, 
sisters, friends and neighbors. 

Pride is of two kinds : first, inordinate self- 
esteem ; an unreasonable conceit of one's own 
superiority in talents, beauty, wealth, accom- 
plishments, rank or elevation. Second, a no- 
ble self-esteem, springing from a consciousness 
of worth. The first of these is one of the great- 
est mischief-makers in society, and always 
bespeaks a want of good sense in those who 

are marked with it. It is, in fact, a species of 
19* 



222 MORALS, 

insanity, for it converts into a curse those very- 
advantages upon which it is founded. If a 
person is seen to be proud of any possession, he 
becomes the object of envy, malice and detrac- 
tion. And thus, what might be the instrument 
of attaching friends and promoting the happi- 
ness of others, draws around the individual a 
host of enemies, and turns human kindness into 
effervescent bitterness and spleen. 

But how shall we correct this evil passion, so 
rife and ready in the human heart, where it 
has even the least encouragement? The boy 
will plume himself upon his new jacket; the 
girl will seek to dazzle her companions with 
her new bonnet. The rich proprietor of the 
lordly mansion will look haughtily down upon 
the shed of his humble neighbor. The lux- 
urious occupant of the coach will peep super- 
ciliously out of the window upon the man that 
toils through the dust on foot. These things 
will sometimes be, and how shall we prevent 
or mitigate these evils? There are two con- 
siderations, which, if duly impressed upon the 
minds of parents, and properly inculcated upon 
children, will go far towards accomplishing 
this object. In the first place, wealth, beauty, 
power and station are not essential to happiness, 
nor do they, as the world goes, ordinarily bring 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 223 

happiness. There is no reason, therefore, why 
the possessor of them should be looked upon 
with envy, or regarded as favored above others. 
In the second place, these envied possessions 
are no sufficient grounds for self-esteem. They 
are accidental gifts, implying no merit on the 
part of him who holds them. The true stand- 
ard of character is that of moral worth. One 
who is honest, just, and beneficent, be he rich 
or be he poor, is entitled to his own esteem and 
that of others. Riches, beauty and power are 
compatible with vice and meanness ; they are 
no part of the man, and ought not to bring 
upon him to whom providence has given them, 
either honor or reproach. Let parents cultivate 
these views of human character and human 
life upon themselves and their children. Let 
them manifest a solicitude that their children 
should be good, rather than great. Let them 
show that they place a higher value upon obe- 
dience, truth, and kindness, than upon riches. 
Let them beware how they excite the ambition 
of children to outshine their companions in 
dress, equipage, or any other sign of good for- 
tune. Let them beware how they stimulate 
the love of display, or tolerate a haughty self- 
esteem. Let them duly consider that wealth, 
power and station are dangerous possessions, 



224 MORALS. 

and that he on whom they are bestowed, like 
one walking on the edge of a dizzy precipice, 
is imminently exposed to destruction; and that 
happiness, peace and security usually dwell 
with the humbler occupant of the lowly hill- 
side or the sheltered valley. 

Vanity, an empty pride, inspired by an over- 
weening conceit of one's personal attainments 
or decorations, is apt to beset young minds, and, 
with a little encouragement on the part of the 
parent, will soon spread itself over the whole 
character. But it is an offensive vice, and those 
who are infected with it soon find themselves 
subjected to ridicule and contempt. Let those 
who have the charge of children be careful 
that they do not feed this greedy passion, by 
ministering to its cravings in gaudy dress, or 
equipage, or display of any kind. 

Anger and revenge are such atrocious pas- 
sions, that the parent hardly needs to be warned 
against their indulgence on the part of children. 
Sulkiness is so ill-favored, that a child under 
its influence will generally dismiss it if he can 
see himself in a mirror. Good humor in the 
parents will always charm this moody intruder 
out of the house. Obstinacy must be reasoned 
with; when the understanding is convinced, 
and a little time is given for pride to subside 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 225 

punishment may follow if it do not yield. Gree- 
diness, the spirit of appropriation of every thing 
to self, in the child, leads to avarice in the 
man. This may be easily overcome, by per- 
suading the child often to part with his posses- 
sions. The habit of giving away is soon es- 
tablished. The spirit of liberality readily com- 
mends itself to the heart, when illustrated by 
example and enforced by precept. Bat this 
must be done in childhood. If avarice gets 
hold of a man, it usually clings to him for life. 
It is in such a case the last vice which surren- 
ders to virtue, and even when religion enters 
the heart, it fiercely and obstinately disputes 
for the right of sovereignty there. 

Ambition is of tAvo kinds, the one laudable, 
the other vicious. The first springs from a love 
of excellence, and leads to a noble and generous 
emulation ; the latter denotes an inordinate and 
selfish desire of power or eminence, often accom- 
panied with illegal means to obtain the object. 
Parents and teachers should be careful to dis- 
criminate between these two kinds of ambition, 
and take heed that in giving scope to one they 
do not tolerate the other. There is a difference 
in children, as I have had occasion to remark 
before, as to the facility with which the princi- 
ple of emulation acts upon them. But, soon or 



226 MORALS. 

late, almost all of them are imbued with a 
desire to rise in life, and therefore engage in the 
strife, to see which shall climb the highest. In 
this country, there are so many tempting fields 
of enterprise thrown open to ambition, that 
almost every person is roused to action, and 
stimulated to the utmost pitch of his powers. 
The humblest individual may rise to the high- 
est office or attain the most unbounded wealth. 
Every one can look around and see examples 
which assure him of this truth. And, as if this 
were not a sufficient stimulus, Ave systemati- 
cally urge such views and desires, not upon the 
young only, but upon the whole community, as 
lead to the impression that success in life con- 
sists only in riches or preferment, and that hap- 
piness is only to be found in standing upon the 
heads of others. 

This is wrong; and it deserves the serious 
consideration of parents. Competence and con- 
tent are true wealth, and those who exercise 
an influence over children sin against their true 
interest if they mark out for them a plan of life 
which goes beyond or falls short of these. The 
first step for parents to take in this matter is to 
get rid of a common mistake, that of making 
children the instruments of their own ambition. 
Mothers love to see their children better dressed 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 227 

than others; fathers to see them excel in mental 
power; and thus the seeds of false ambition 
are sown, and, when the rank weeds shoot up, 
they are nurtured by the parental hand. The 
motive here cannot be disguised; it is selfish 
pride in the parent, though it may wear the 
semblance of affection for the child. To aid 
persons engaged in the training of children, so 
that they may cherish a virtuous ambition on 
the one hand, and repress vicious ambition on 
the other, I suggest the following table. 

POINTS OF SAFE AMBITION, WHICH PARENTS MAT INCULCATE 
UPON THEMSELVES AND THEIR CHILDREN, WITHOUT FEAR OF 
EXCESS. 

1. Neatness and propriety in dress, having reference to occasion 
and the circumstances of the individual. 

2. Politeness ; paying due regard to the tastes and feelings of 
others. 

3. Good humor. 

4. Cheerfulness. 

5. Justice in respect to the property, character, and feelings of 
others. 

6. Cultivation of the intellect, with a view to the discovery and 
vindication of truth. 

7. Wisdom ; the skill to avoid vice and misfortune, and to attain 
virtue and success. 

8. Self-control ; the power to restrain one's self from acts of 
imprudence, -vice and folly; the power to compel one's self to do 
what is required at the right time and in the right way. 

9. Moral courage ; the power to resist fashionable errors ; to 
maintain unpopular truth ; to show sympathy, kindness and hu- 
manity toward the unfortunate, the humble and the poor, even 
where it may threaten momentary contempt. 



228 Morals. 

10. Consistency, without obstinacy. 
il-. Charity in all its forms. 

12. Excellence in the profession or pursuit to which a person 
devotes himself, accompanied by equity and modesty. 



POINTS OF DANGEROUS AMBITION, WHICH PARENTS SHOULD RE- 
PRESS IN THEMSELVES AND THEIR CHILDREN. 

1. Display of all kinds, in dress, equipage, manners, accom- 
plishments, talents, wit, personal beauty, power and wealth. 

2. Great riches, rank, station, office, as instruments of selfish 
gratification and pride. 

3. Exclusiveness, by which persons affect to be of a superior 
caste. 

4. That assumed superiority of taste which displays itself in 
hypercritical discontent. 

5. That pretendedly superior sagacity which imputes bad mo- 
tives as the source of good actions. 

6. That cunning which would make dupes of mankind. 



CHARITY. 

I have reserved to the last my remarks on 
this virtue, not because I would rank it as infe- 
rior to other virtues, but because it seems to be 
a union of them all. The sun, though so pure 
and stainless, is still the fountain of the primi- 
tive colors. If you take pieces of cloth, of these 
several hues, place them on a wheel, and then 
turn it rapidly, so that the colors blend together 
in the eye, they will form a pure white, like the 
liquid overflow which the sun pours out upon 
the universe. And as light is a union of all 
colors, so is charity a blending of all the higher 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 229 

virtues. As the sun is the source of light, so i3 
Heaven the great fountain of charity. As the 
sun gives life to the vegetable and animal world 
by its light and heat, so charity quickens the 
moral world, giving to mankind whatever love, 
peace, and happiness there may be in it. 

It is not necessary for me to enlarge upon the 
virtue of charity in its religious sense, as involv- 
ing love to God, the source of all good. But in 
its exercise to man, it cannot be too earnestly 
inculcated, especially as a point of education. 
I do not speak of alms-giving, the commonest, 
cheapest, and easiest kind of charity; for the 
demands upon us for this are few in our country, 
compared with what they are in most others. 
Perhaps the infrequency of occasion for the ex- 
ercise of this species of virtue may even lead us 
to forget it, which would certainly be wrong ; 
for there are instances in which parting with 
our substance for the relief of the needy is an 
indispensable duty. But I would ask parents 
to cultivate that charity of speech, feeling, and 
opinion, which may lead to peace in families, 
neighborhoods, villages and towns. Let them 
cherish all this in themselves ; let them culti- 
vate it in their children. If we consider the 
savage spirit which we often see in society, 
leading to duels, lynchings, mobs and riots ; and 
20 



230 MORAL& 

if we consider that even the press often stimtt-» 
lates these, by bitterness and virulence, rather 
than softens them, by justice, candor, and dig- 
nity ; we shall see how important is the inter- 
position of parents in this matter. Let them 
begin with childhood. Let them arrest the little 
arm that is so prompt to hurl a resentful stone, 
or thrust forth a defiant fist. Let them check 
the little tongue that is so apt and ready at 
catching sharp and reproachful epithets. Let 
them cultivate the habit of putting kind con- 
structions upon actions, and seeking for favor- 
able rather than unfavorable points of charac- 
ter. Let them check a satirical turn in children y 
and by no means indulge in them a love of 
ridicule. I have lately seen, with pain, the 
abominable taste of England for caricatures, 
creeping into this country. Already the shop 
windows of our cities teem with disgusting pic- 
tures, which are deemed very witty because 
they are very monstrous. The comic almanacs, 
thousands of which are now published and cir- 
culated everywhere, are among the worst instru- 
ments of depravity. No parent ought to tolerate 
one in his house. A turn for the ridiculous, the 
lowest and last species of wit, is a thing to be 
shunned, for it often terminates in grossness and 
brutality. The following fable may illustrate 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 23 1 

the degradation of mind and taste to which it 
may lead. 

THE BEE AND BEETLE —A FABLE, 

A bee and beetle chanced to meet, 

One sunny day, upon a rose; 
His neighbor thus the bee did greet, 

Although, meanwhile, he held his nose:— 
*' I wonder much to meet you here, 

For surely you don't feast on roses?" 
The beetle answered, with a sneer, 

11 1 know the idle fool supposes 
That in a rose there 's nought but honey. 

You think a flower, so fair to view, 
With breatih so sweet, and cheek so S4.mny t 

Is only made far things like you! 
But, — pnthee, do not look so sour, — 

A thing that hath a nose like mine 
May turn the breath of sweetest flower — ■ 

Of rose, carnation, columbine — 
To odors fetid as the air 

Where beetles love to delve and dine. 
Each has his gift for foul or fair — 

You, buzz, have yours^ and I have mine !" 



HEALTH. 

Though the body is but the temporary resi- 
dence of the soul, yet, during life, the most in- 
timate union subsists between the two. The 
former is material, and the mere instrument of 
the latter ; but every portion of it is penetrated 
by nerves^ which carry home to the brain, the 



232 HEALTH. 

seat of the soul, a constant succession of sensa- 
tions. The mind is, therefore, in the closest 
sympathy with the body, feels every injury 
that is done to it, participates in its disease, 
derangement, and decay; or, on the contrary, 
shares in its vigor, health and prosperity. Thus, 
it is evident, that in order to have a sound mind, 
it is necessary to possess a sound body ; and to 
render this the more obvious, let it be considered 
that not only a large portion of the misery in 
this world consists in bodily distress, but that 
a considerable share of the ill temper, caprice, 
jealousy, envy, suspicion, which are witnessed 
among mankind, are either engendered or pro- 
moted by a diseased state of the body ; the soul 
itself being thrown off its balance by the irregu- 
lar action of the body upon it. 

In looking round upon life, we see some per- 
sons who are strong and full of health, and to 
whom disease is a stranger. We notice others 
who are feeble, who are subject to frequent 
sickness, and to whom the generous, happy 
glow of health is never known. And though 
it may be that the difference in these two per- 
sons is constitutional, founded on causes beyond 
human control, still, it is undoubtedly the fact 
that parents may, by judicious treatment, in 
most cases, ensure good health and good con- 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 233 

stitutions to their children. And how is this to 
be done ? 

The rules to be observed in order to accom- 
plish this object are very simple, and generally 
understood. It is the wilful or careless breach 
of them in respect to children that so often en- 
tails misery upon them in after life. It may 
seem unnecessary to repeat here what is well 
understood in every nursery ; but as it is better 
to err on the safe side, I will mention some of 
those common maxims which must be observed 
in order to ensure health, vigor and long life. 

Children should retire early to bed and rise 
early in the morning. They should, especially 
during the warm months, avoid the evening air, 
for it is noxious to the blood. They should 
court the morning breeze, for it is full of invigo- 
rating influences. They should spend several 
hours in the open air every day when the 
weather permits; and even when it is incle- 
ment, they should be properly protected by 
clothing and sent abroad. There are few days, 
even in our severe winters, when children ought 
not to be out of doors at least for a couple of 
hours. Children of strong constitutions may 
take the risk of living in cities, but it is a se- 
vere and dangerous experiment even to them. 
Pure air and pure water are among the most in> 
20* 



234 



HEALTH. 



portant instruments of health, and these are to 
be obtained in their perfection only in the coun- 
try. Those who live in the city, and have feeble 
children, should fly from it as from a pesti- 
lence. 

The best food for children under ten years 
old, is bread and milk for the morning and 
evening meals. No person should take meat 
but once a day, and this should be at dinner. 
Children should be allowed but a moderate 
quantity. Mutton and beef are the best kinds 
of meat. Yeal and pork are more difficult of 
digestion. Potatoes and rice are an excellent 
substitute for bread. It may be remarked that 
delicate children require that their food should 
be well cooked and of a good quality. Those 
who are strong and take hardy exercise need 
not be so scrupulous, though it is still better, in 
all cases, to have food in the most perfect con- 
dition which circumstances permit. 

Pies, cakes, and sweetmeats should be abso- 
lutely interdicted. I know it is a very pleasant 
thing to see children gratified. It is pleasant 
for grandmothers and aunts to bestow these 
nice things upon those they love, and they 
may deem it kind and generous to do so. But 
it is, in point of fact, mere selfishness. These 
things are universally known to be poisonous 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 235 

to children, and those who give them are COf»* 
scions that they are purchasing the momentary 
smile of satisfaction at the risk of after sickness, 
and perhaps incurable disease. There is one 
practice which cannot he too severely reprobated, 
that of giving pies, cakes and sweetmeats to 
children without the consent of their parents. 
Whether this be done thoughtlessly or otherwise, 
it is a more serious injury to parent and child 
than to beat the latter, even without cause or 
provocation. 

Tea and coffee should be totally withheld 
from children under ten years old. The former 
should never be taken, unless it is weak, before 
the age of twenty. Green tea is a strong stimu- 
lant, and can never be taken without injuri- 
ous consequences by some persons. Black tea 
is much safer ; mixed with green it is very 
palatable, and has no bad effects upon persons 
arrived at mature age. Coffee is a strong nar- 
cotic, and operates differently on different per- 
sons. To some, it is a poison, producing nau- 
sea or great nervous irritability ; others appear 
to take it without injury. But it is never safe 
for children or young persons. Even if it pro- 
duces no immediate, visible evil, it is sure to 
lay the foundation of after mischief. It weak- 
ens the digestive energy of the stomach, and 



23B HEALTH. 

soon or late begets dyspepsy and a perpetual 
craving for active stimuli. Early coffee drink- 
ing, in a climate like ours, subject to extremes 
and sudden changes, will often result in habi- 
tual drunkenness. That which has been im- 
agined to be hereditary predisposition to intem- 
perance, has frequently been nothing more than 
the craving of a diseased stomach, engendered, 
under a mother's eye and with a mother's ap- 
probation, by the early drinking of strong tea 
or strong coffee. 

It is perhaps needless to add that ale, beer, 
cider, wine and spirits are unnecessary to chil- 
dren, for they are probably unnecessary to all. 
But, connected with the subject of stimulating 
drinks, there are two questions for the parent 
to consider : the one as to health, the other as 
to morals. There cannot be a doubt that if a 
person desires to enjoy the highest vigor of 
body and mind, the most perfect exercise of 
his physical and intellectual powers, that his 
true policy is to avoid all stimulating drinks, 
except so far as they may be occasionally pre- 
scribed in sickness or decay by the physician. 
Experience and wisdom sanction this view of 
the matter. Why, then, do we not reject them? 
The simple answer is that we have got into the 
habit of using them, and this habit is so fixed 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 237 

upon us that we cannot easily shake it off. 
It has come down to us from long antiquity. 
It is commended by the sweet associations 
of music and song ; it is connected with the 
memories of classic ages and classic climes. It 
has long been woven in with the luxuries of life 
and the hospitalities of home ; and though it be 
a pernicious habit, leading to frequent drunken- 
ness, and spreading desolation and crime over 
the land, still it clings to us with almost invin- 
cible pertinacity. But something has been done 
toward the disenthralment of the age from this 
giant vice. We, at least, know that stimulat- 
ing drinks are unnecessary and injurious, and 
some approach has been made toward bringing 
people to act consistently with this knowledge. 
Thousands have abandoned the use of them 
altogether, and other thousands have gone so 
far as to reject the use of alcoholic liquors. 
The fashion on this subject is changed. It is 
no longer considered a requisition of hospitality 
or gentility to offer liquors to a stranger, or to 
any one who may call at your house. It is 
compatible with gentility not even to have wine 
upon your table at dinner. It was once no 
disgrace for a man to get drunk in a convivial 
way. Intemperance is now looked upon in its 
proper light, as one of those vices marked by 



238 HEALTfl. 

Heaven with peculiar reprobation, from the 
frightful consequences attached to its indulgence. 
Its immediate eifect is to deprive a man of rea- 
son, and lay him upon the earth, a loathsome 
image of man, while yet but a mass of breath- 
ing clay. Its next effect is to take away self- 
control and self-respect, to paralyze the under- 
standing, to undermine the health, and stupify 
the moral sense. It goes on to render the indivi- 
dual a burden to himself and a by- word on the 
lips of his fellow-men. If he is a parent, it 
makes him indifferent to the fortunes of his 
children; if a husband, he becomes insensible 
to the claims and privileges of a wife ; if a son, 
he cares not even though he bring down the 
gray hairs of a father with sorrow to the grave. 
We sometimes see the unsheathed lightning of 
heaven descend upon a human dwelling, and, 
in pursuit of the hidden iron, leap from point to 
point, shivering the rafter and splintering the 
beam, thus reaching the imbedded nail and 
sunken spike. And so the wrath of Heaven 
seems to follow the vices of the drunkard, first 
visiting the iniquity upon the shattered frame, 
then upon the ruined mind, and at last upon 
those who are connected with him — wife, chil- 
dren and friends ! A frightful illustration of 
the inveteracy of this vice ; and the supremacy 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 239 

it acquires over the mind, is afforded in the 
anecdote of an Indian who was met at the 
rapids of Niagara by some travellers. He asked 
them for spirits, of which their servant had a 
bottle. It was agreed that he should have this 
if he would swim into the rapids and back 
again, a little above the falls. To this he con- 
sented, and, taking the bottle with him, ven- 
tured in. He went to the required distance, and 
then attempted to return. But the current 
was too strong ; for several minutes, he strove 
desperately for the shore, but without gaining 
a single inch. His strength gradually gave 
way, and he began to yield to the overmaster- 
ing tide. Finding that the strife was vain 
and his fate inevitable, he yielded to the cur- 
rent, and, rising above the wave, put the up- 
turned bottle to his lips, and in this attitude 
plunged over the roaring fall ! Alas ! how 
often has it happened that persons, without the 
excuse of this untutored savage, have been 
tempted to their graves by the love of liquor, 
and, while hovering on the very brink of eter- 
nity, have shown that they thought more of 
the thirsty lip than the immortal soul ! 

If such be the vice of intemperance, and if 
just views of its enormity have become current 
among us, and if the habit of taking stimulat- 



240 HEALTH. 

ing drinks as cheering beverage leads to the 
practice of it, why then are not these drinks 
banished from society by general acclamation? 
Because many persons are still wedded to the 
old custom, and either their moral sense is so 
dimmed that they cannot see the truth, or, see- 
ing it, they prefer rather to take the fearful con- 
sequences of indulgence than perform an act 
of unpleasant self-denial. Beside, the sale of 
liquors is a source of profit to many individuals, 
and, while they know the evils of the traffic, 
they still claim it as a privilege to acquire 
wealth by scattering poison among their fellow- 
men. The wholesale dealer sells the hogshead 
to the retailer and the taverner, chuckling over 
the profit, though he knows that the liquor, as 
it is drained gill by gill from the cask, will lay 
many a human being prostrate upon the earth, 
send home many a drunken husband to beat 
and abuse his wife, and many a drunken father 
to set an odious example of vice and profanity 
to his children. The retailer and taverner dole 
it out, by the glass or the bottle, content with 
the gain, though aware that they take money 
from the profligate parent which ought to go to 
feed the starving children or comfort the over- 
worked and ill-provided wife. Such things are, 
and such things will continue to be, at least for 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 24 1 

a time. But they are becoming more rare, and 
truth and reason will ultimately prevail. There 
are many of the present grown-up generation 
upon whom intemperance has fastened its talons, 
and who are doubtless destined to be borne 
down by it to an ignominious grave. But we 
may at least hope that the rising generation 
will be free from the dominion of this dreadful 
vice. Let parents, at least, see that their chil- 
dren reach the period of maturity untainted. 
Let them be brought up in total abstinence from 
all intoxicating drinks. Let this abstinence be 
founded on the conviction that any other course 
of action is but entering the path which leads 
to crime, and, as courting temptation, is dan- 
gerous and criminal. Let parents take care 
that their sons are never permitted to frequent 
a tavern bar-room where liquors are sold. A 
boy who once gets to like this disgusting temple 
of Bacchus, is in extreme danger of ruin. Let 
young men be taught that the practice of meet- 
ing at taverns, and treating each other with 
strong drinks, is alike condemned by good taste 
and good morals. Let the young, of both 
sexes, be kept away from balls and parties 
where wines, slings and toddies are drank. 
The breath of pestilence were less hurtful to 
them. To the young ladies of this country we 
21 



242 HEALTH. 

may appeal with safety on this subject, for their 
taste and feelings are right and pure. Let them 
make it a rule of good manners, the breach of 
which shall forfeit their esteem, that no young 
man of their acquaintance shall drink intoxicat- 
ing liquors. Let mothers inculcate these views 
upon their daughters. 

Before I leave this topic, let me say one kind 
word to parents as to their duty in respect to the 
great public movement that is now making in 
this country to banish intemperance, by banish- 
ing the facilities, temptations and inducements 
to intemperance. Where ought parents to be 
found on this question 1 Let me ask fathers and 
mothers to look at their own children, and, con- 
sidering the dangers to which they are exposed, 
to decide whether they will lend their aid to 
revive or perpetuate the custom of licensing 
certain establishments for the express purpose 
of selling intoxicating liquors ! Will parents aid 
in spreading snares for the feet of their children % 

The climate of this country is regularly 
abused by the inhabitants, for its extremes of 
heat and cold, and its capricious changes from 
one to the other. Along the Atlantic border of 
the New England states, the east wind is a 
theme of perpetual grumbling. But the truth 
is, our climate is a pretty good one, and those 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 243 

who cannot live here would hardly be contented 
any where. The fogs and drizzle of England, 
the malaria of Italy, the simoon of Africa, the 
scorpions, flies, and serpents of Asia, or some 
other source of annoyance, would be found by 
these individuals, should they migrate to any 
of these countries. The wiser way is to con- 
sider that, to live happily in any country, it is 
necessary to exercise some vigilance and some 
industry, and that the variableness of our cli- 
mate calls upon us to exert these by changing 
our attire according to the weather. It is a com- 
mon mistake for us to dress agreeably to the 
almanac, and not according to the thermome- 
ter. We have caught from our English an- 
cestors the idea that May-day is a season of 
flowers, and, though this never was and never 
will be in New England, we seem every year 
to be disappointed that it is not so. We take 
off our winter clothing in April, because the 
English call it a spring month, and, finding 
that we get colds and consumptions thereby, 
we impute it to our bad climate, instead of our 
own folly. The proper course is for us to dress 
every day in the year so that we may be com- 
fortable. Even an east wind may be thus set 
at defiance, nay, converted into a friendly and 
invigorating breeze- for a man with flannel 



244 HEALTH. 

next his skin and a warm wrapper without, 
whether riding or walking, will meet this breath 
of the briny deep rather with welcome than 
shivering abhorrence. The person who chooses 
to go out thinly clad in a chill east wind may 
warm himself by railing if he can. 

One of the worst customs to which our capri- 
cious climate has led, is that of keeping the in- 
habitants too much within doors. Every per- 
son, old or young, who is not confined by sick- 
ness, ought to go very often abroad, and take 
the free fresh air several hours. W alking is the 
best exercise for men and women. This should 
be practised every day in the year, unless the 
inclemency of the weather absolutely forbids. 
The English are the healthiest people in the 
world, and this arises in part from their system- 
atic exercise. Even the most delicate and high- 
bred ladies there take an airing almost every 
day, and usually walk several miles. They do 
not mind a drizzle or a shower. How different 
is it in this country ! It is here considered a 
matter of delicacy for a woman to keep herself 
immured at home, and she pays for it in a slen- 
der constitution, a pallid cheek, the early decay 
of her teeth, and the premature loss of all the 
beauty which health can bestow. I have been 
struck with the difference of custom, in this re- 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 245 

spect, in England. There is no country where 
the women perform their domestic duties with 
more fidelity, but they still find time to gain daily 
healthful exercise beneath the open sky of hea- 
ven. This custom strikes an American on his 
first arrival in England. He there sees many of 
the women abroad, contrasting strangely with 
the shy imprisonment of the sex in his own coun- 
try. And one thing is to be remarked, that the 
English women dress to the weather, and do not 
expect the weather to suit itself to them. They 
put on thick cloaks and warm shawls, if the 
wind is rough, and do not disdain stout shoes or 
pattens, if the ground is wet or muddy. 

This example is worthy of being followed by 
our fair country women. Mothers should begin 
with their children, see that they are properly 
clad, -and see that they go abroad every day, 
girls and boys. Let them be made strong, ac- 
tive walkers. The power of walking a dozen 
miles without fatigue is a great accomplishment, 
and it is possessed by many young women in 
England. Young men may easily train them- 
selves to walk thirty miles a day, and with this 
talent, a person may travel over any country, 
and that too in the manner best adapted to the 
study of its customs, character and resources. 

There is perhaps no way in which children 
21* 



246 HEALTH. 

may better obtain exercise than in those sports 
which they follow at school. Young children, 
when they cannot go abroad, find a great amuse- 
ment in building houses, towers, bridges and 
fences with blocks of .wood cut in the shape 
of bricks. These should be three inches long, 
two wide, and an inch thick. I have seen a 
child of three years amuse himself, alone, in a 
room for four hours together, with one hundred 
and fifty of these blocks. 

Regularity of habit is indispensable to health. 
Children should be required to retire at night, 
to rise in the morning, to eat their several meals, 
at fixed hours. Regularity should also be ob- 
served in all the habits of the body. 

Personal cleanliness is very important to all, 
especially to children. Not only the hands, face 
and feet should be frequently washed, but the 
whole person should undergo ablution every 
day if convenient, at all events twice a week. 
In the matter of bathing we are sadly deficient 
in this country. Living in a land where pure 
water abounds, where a thousand bright rills 
and sparkling streams come down to refresh us, 
our houses are still worse provided with this 
element, so essential to comfort and health, 
than any other in the world, where the people 
have reached an equal pitch of civilization. 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 247 

No house should be without a bath, and the 
easy means of supplying it. Yet not one in 
fifty is furnished in this way. 

To these remarks in relation to health, I need 
but add one general caution, and that is, that chil- 
dren should not be pressed in their studies before 
they are ten years old. The first three or four 
years are occupied in educating the senses, which 
they perform themselves with little aid. It is not 
important that they learn the alphabet till six 
years old. To require these little creatures to 
sit down upon benches, to bend studiously over 
a book, to restrain their tongues, and keep their 
legs and arms motionless, which Heaven impels 
them to keep in constant exercise, is violating 
nature, injuring the health, and disgusting the 
young pupil with the whole business of school 
education. The true rule seems to be this : 
that until ten years of age the main effort of the 
parent should be to develop the animal powers, 
to secure and establish good health, good spirits, 
and a good constitution in the child, by no means 
neglecting moral culture, which need not inter- 
fere with physical training. The parent need 
feel no humiliation at the late scholarship of 
his child, for those pupils who are backward at 
twelve years are frequently beyond others at 
fifteen. Those persons who come late to their 



248 HEALTH. 

maturity are usually superior in soundness and 
vigor to those who are more precocious. 

I am unwilling to close this article on health 
without adding a caution against quack medi- 
cines, a common means of cheating the public, 
and a fertile source of disease and premature 
death. The whole business of quackery in 
physic proceeds upon the idea that ignorance 
and accident, in the management of diseases, 
are as good as experience, judgment and skill. 
And can any thing be more absurd and mon- 
strous? Let parents, then, not only avoid quacks 
and quackery, but teach their children the true 
character of this odious business. The vend- 
ers of these quack medicines, and these quack 
doctors, are not self-deceived, but are, without 
exception, determined and wilful impostors, 
cheating the public by design, for the mere pur- 
pose of gain, and often knowingly sending down 
their dupes to a hasty grave for the poor profit 
on a box of pills ! There is something so shock- 
ing in this that it ought to rouse the whole com- 
munity. Parents, at least, should fortify their 
children against such impositions, and this is 
the more necessary from the extent to which 
they are carried, and from the ingenious means 
which are resorted to for the purpose of de- 
ceiving the public. 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 249 



AMUSEMENTS. 

As in some degree connected with the subject 
of health, it is proper to say a few words on 
amusements. The early settlers of New England 
discouraged them in every form. Surrounded 
by dangers from the wild beast and the prowling 
Indian, threatened with destruction from the 
rigors of an untried climate, and with famine 
in a country not yet subjected to cultivation, 
they found a constant stimulus in the high duties 
of self-defence and self-preservation, and need- 
ed not to seek excitement in pastimes. They 
had something also of religious sternness, which 
forbade light amusements, and held most social 
recreations as profane. These views have de- 
scended to our own time, though with mitigated 
rigor. It has at length been discovered that 
certain amusements contribute to health and 
promote virtue, and that some of the prevalent 
vices of this country have received encourage- 
ment from our lack of innocent public amuse- 
ments. There has been a degree of reproach 
and ill fame attached to our holidays and re- 
creations ; women having consequently been 
withheld from them, they have therefore been 
given up to men, and usually those of a some- 
what vicious character. These, being under 



250 AMUSEMENTS. 

little restraint, indulge in drinking and coarse 
mirth. Thus, in temperance and rudeness have 
been encouraged. In France and England, 
public amusements and holidays are cherished 
by public opinion. Fathers and mothers, with 
their children, go together to fairs, shows, and 
other entertainments. With such sources of 
amusement, and in the presence of wives and 
daughters, men have no desire for intoxicating 
drinks, and no temptation to vulgarity. Under 
such circumstances, every thing tends to refine- 
ment. In connection with this subject, I offer 
the following passage from Dr. Channing's Ad- 
dress on Temperance. 

"In every community there must be pleasures, 
relaxations and means of agreeable excitement ; 
and if innocent ones are not furnished, resort 
will be had to criminal. Man was made to 
enjoy, as well as to labor ; and the state of soci- 
ety should be adapted to this principle of human 
nature. France, especially before the revolu- 
tion, has been represented as a singularly tem- 
perate country ; a fact to be explained, at least 
in part, by the constitutional cheerfulness of 
that people, and by the prevalence of simple 
and innocent gratifications, especially among 
the peasantry. Men drink to excess very often 
to shake off depression, or to satisfy the restless 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 25 1 

thirst for agreeable excitement, and these mo- 
tives are excluded in a cheerful community. A 
gloomy state of society, in which there are few- 
innocent recreations, may be expected to abound 
in drunkenness, if opportunities are afforded. 
The savage drinks to excess because his hours 
of sobriety are dull and unvaried, because, in 
losing the consciousness of his condition and 
his existence, he loses little which he wishes to 
retain. The laboring classes are most exposed 
to intemperance, because they have at present 
few other pleasurable excitements. A man who, 
after toil, has resources of blameless recreation, 
is less tempted than other men to seek self- 
oblivion. He has too many of the pleasures of 
a man to take up with those of a brute. Thus 
the encouragement of simple, innocent enjoy- 
ments is an important means of temperance. 

" These remarks show the importance of en- 
couraging the efforts, which have commenced 
among us, for spreading the accomplishment of 
music through our whole community. It is 
now proposed that this shall be made a regular 
branch in our schools ; and every friend of the 
people must wish success to the experiment. I 
am not now called to speak of all the good 
influences of music, particularly of the strength 
which it may and ought to give to the. religious 



%h% AMUSEMENTS. 

sentiment, and to all pure and generous emo- 
tions. Regarded merely as a refined pleasure, 
it has a favorable bearing on public morals. 
Let taste and skill in this beautiful art be spread 
among us 5 and every family will have a new 
resource. Home will gain a new attraction. 
Social intercourse will be more cheerful, and an 
innocent public amusement will be furnished to 
the community. Public amusements, bringing 
multitudes together to kindle with one emotion, 
to share the same innocent joy, have a human- 
izing influence ; and among these bonds of soci- 
ety, perhaps no one produces so much unmixed 
good as music. What a fulness of enjoyment 
has our Creator placed within our reach, by 
surrounding us with an atmosphere which may 
be shaped into sweet sounds ! And yet this 
goodness is almost lost upon us, through want 
of culture of the organ by which this provision 
is to be enjoyed. 

"I approach another subject, on which a 
greater variety of opinion exists than on the 
last, and that is the theatre. In its present 
state, the theatre deserves no encouragement. 
It is an accumulation of immoral influences. 
It has nourished intemperance and all vice. In 
saying this, I do not say that the amusement 
is radically, essentially evil. I can conceive 
of a theatre which would be the noblest of 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 253 

all amusements, and would take a high rank, 
among the means of refining the taste and ele- 
vating the character of a people. The deep 
woes, the mighty and terrible passions, and the 
sublime emotions of genuine tragedy, are fitted 
to thrill us with human sympathies, with pro- 
found interest in our nature, with a conscious- 
ness of what man can do and dare and suffer, 
with an awed feeling of the fearful mysteries 
of life. The soul of the spectator is stirred 
from its depths, and the lethargy in which so 
many live is roused, at least for a time, to some 
intenseness of thought and sensibility. The 
drama answers a high purpose when it places 
us in the presence of the most solemn and strik- 
ing events of human history, and lays bare to 
us the human heart in its most powerful, ap- 
palling, glorious workings. But how little does 
the theatre accomplish its end. How often is 
it disgraced by monstrous distortions of human 
nature, and still more disgraced by profaneness, 
coarseness, indelicacy, low wit, such as no wo- 
man, worthy of the name, can hear without a 
blush, and no man can take pleasure in with- 
out self-degradation." 

In regard to amusements of a more private 
character, such as every family may cultivate 
for the pleasant passing of an evening, I would 
22 



254 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 

specially recommend chess, as exceedingly in- 
teresting, and as exercising the habit of mental 
attention. There are many games of cards 
which are amusing, and of rather a useful ten- 
dency in training the judgment. Parents should, 
however, select proper occasions to warn their 
children against every species of gambling, and 
should specially require it of their sons never 
to play for money. This rule, if properly en- 
forced and rigidly obeyed, may save many a 
son from ruin into which he would otherwise 
fall. 



INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 

The cultivation of the mind has been gene- 
rally considered as the whole business of edu- 
cation. But in our view it is but one link in 
the chain. It is, however, of great importance, 
and demands the special attention of parents in 
reference to their children. The mind is the 
seat of knowledge, and knowledge is the lamp 
which lights up the path to power. Beside, 
cultivation of the intellect tends to elevate man 
above the sway of his animal nature ; it puri- 
fies and exalts the soul, and, by affording true 
sources of pleasure, affords a protection against 
the seduction of coarse vices. 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 255 

It has been the common notion that parents 
have little or nothing to do with the business of 
education, farther than to send their children to 
school. But is this a just view of their duty? 
Let us examine our seminaries, and, as we pass 
along, consider what may be fairly expected of 
parents, and what parents may fairly expect 
from them 

THE PRIMARY SCHOOL. 

The fireside may be considered a natural 
seminary, pervading every nation and every 
grade of society. But more artificial institu- 
tions have been established, especially in civil- 
i-zed countries, for the purpose of instruction. 
These consist of seminaries of various kinds, 
from the infant school to the university. I 
shall first speak at some length of our common 
schools, and afterwards shall briefly notice the 
higher seminaries. In whatever point of view 
we may regard the district school, it is one of 
the most interesting institutions among us. In 
this humble temple of learning, a very large 
majority of the people receive what is called 
their education. It is the great instrument, 
therefore, which determines the character of 
society at large as to intelligence. Our colleges, 
our academies, and our high schools may give 



256 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 

instruction to tens, but the common school to 
thousands. The people therefore will, on the 
whole, be well or ill instructed, according to 
the character of our common schools. Let us 
analyze these institutions, and attempt to define 
their proper limits and functions. Having done 
this, and compared our schools, as they actu- 
ally exist, with what they ought to be, we can 
determine what improvement in them society 
should attempt to make. 

In the first place, then, the common schools 
should be the nurseries of learning, in which 
every child's mind is to be ingrafted with the 
scions of knowledge and virtue. They should 
be universal — thrown open to all. I would not 
have gratuitous admission, even if it were fea- 
sible, for experience has shown that education 
which costs nothing is usually contemned by 
both parent and pupil. I would therefore have 
some toll demanded at the gates of knowledge ; 
but this should be so light that all who desire 
it, the poor as well as the rich, may enter in. 

In the second place, these seminaries should 
be so well managed as to satisfy all parents, 
even those who are rich and are willing to pay 
any price for good instruction. They should, 
wherever they exist, be the best schools in the 
place. If the public schools are poor or indif- 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 257 

ferent, private schools will be set up, and will 
draw off the children of those who are able to 
pay liberally. From this, two evils will result. 
You lay a foundation at the very outset of life 
for a division of society into classes, which has 
done more to destroy the peace of mankind than 
all the wars and all the pestilence that have 
visited this earth; a division that in this coun- 
try it ought to be our special policy to avoid. 
The second evil arising from having inferior 
district schools is, that they soon get to be des- 
pised. They are looked upon as the seminaries 
only of the poor. The teacher is regarded as 
a mere drudge, and finds no spirit in the soci- 
ety around to cheer his labors. The rich and 
the intelligent send their children to other 
schools, and, the active interest of these being 
withdrawn, the seminary sinks into a mere 
pound, where the children of those who are 
engaged in laborious occupations can be kept 
out of mischief for six or seven hours a day. 
These schools are, therefore, not only likely 
to be ill managed, but sometimes they will be 
filled with the worst children of the place. A 
lady recently told me that, during the recess of 
a private school which her children attended, 
she had occasion to send her boy, about seven 
years of age, to one of these ill-regulated dis- 
22* 



258 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 

trict schools. The boy came home delighted, 
telling his mother that he liked it very much, 
for he was allowed to scratch and pull hair as 
much as he pleased ! 

In the third place, the district school should 
be the auxiliary of the fireside. The parent 
and the schoolmaster should go hand in hand. 
They should, when circumstances permit, con- 
fer together and act together. There should 
be mutual confidence, mutual aid, and hearty 
co-operation. It is the imperious duty of every 
parent to take a deep interest in the school 
where his children are taught. It is his duty 
to watch over their progress, to counsel the 
teacher, to support, not thwart, him in his 
arduous labors. 

It is not necessary that we should make any 
suggestions as to the studies to be pursued in 
our schools. These, though varying accord- 
ing to circumstances, will of course include the 
basis of that practical knowledge which is 
needful in the business of life, and which may 
be required in order to form just opinions upon 
the great questions which arise in society. 

But we may say a word in behalf of man- 
ners, or the " lesser morals." Though this 
subject is overlooked, it is, at the same time, 
of great importance. Politeness is morality in 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION, 259 

little things. It is doing to another as you 
would have another do to you in the intercourse 
of every-day life. Self-love is the master pas- 
sion, and selfishness indulged will soon pervade 
the whole character. Politeness teaches an ha- 
bitual restraint upon this vice ; it teaches a deli- 
cate regard to the rights and feelings of others, 
I would, therefore, have in our common schools 
a manual, which should instruct every member 
of the rising generation in the principles of good 
breeding — in all those rules of refined society 
which are embraced in the word politeness. I 
do not mean merely the hollow ceremonies of 
fashionable life, but that code of lesser morals 
which requires the high and low, the rich and 
poor, to pay an habitual respect to the tastes 
and feelings of all around them. Consider the 
effect of diffusing such rules of action over a 
whole community ! Consider the benefits in a 
country like ours, where the design of our poli- 
tical system is to level down distinctions and 
weave all classes into one harmonious family. 

There is another point almost wholly neg- 
lected in our schools, yet very important; I 
mean physical training. The teacher should 
take care that his pupils do not sit in positions 
which are likely to injure their health or estab- 
lish awkward habits. We have the testimony 



260 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 

of physicians to warn us of the painful fact, that 
constitutional diseases and incurable bodily de- 
formity often arise from the want of attention to 
this rule. The teacher should take care that 
the scholars do not remain too long without 
relaxation, and he should see that all have ex- 
ercise calculated to impart activity and vigor. 
He should go with the pupils frequently into 
the play-ground, and, in addition to the custom- 
ary sports, should teach them such other amuse- 
ments and exercises as may give durability to 
the frame and elasticity to the muscle. All 
children may not seem to need this, but it is 
useful to all, and in every school there are many 
who are indolent or feeble, to whom such train- 
ing is indispensable. The body is the tenement 
of the soul, the setting of an immortal gem. 
The mind and spirit, as I have before said, are 
linked in such close sympathy with the body, 
that, if this be weak or diseased, it entails misery 
on the whole being. If the tenement be ill built, 
shattered and leaky, the tenant must necessa- 
rily suffer. A great deal of the irritability of 
temper which we see in some persons arises 
from imperfect health. If, then, it is important 
to guard the happiness and ensure the useful- 
ness of our children, let us see that their physi- 
cal powers are duly perfected. I have had 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 



261 



occasion to speak more particularly on this sub- 
ject ; I only mention it here as being a point of 
importance in our schools. 

Moral instruction and moral training should 
constitute a leading feature in the plan of every 
school. The beauty and duty of justice should 
be illustrated and enforced. Charity should be 
inculcated. A love of truth should be engraven 
on the heart. Kindness and good will to all 
living things should be diffused abroad. The 
moral world is balanced by two powers analo- 
gous to those mighty forces which keep the 
revolving planets in their orbits. One is self- 
love, which tends to draw every thing to the 
centre — self; the other is charity, which would 
teach us to forget self, and act with regard to 
the whole social system. It is a proper balance 
of these powers, giving to each its proper force, 
that, can alone sustain the harmony of the 
moral world. This balance can only be en- 
sured by beginning with the young, and no per- 
son has a just sense of his duty to his children, 
or to society, who fails to use all due means to 
bring about this state of things. I have already 
expressed the fear that one reason why the 
heart is not as carefully educated as the mind, 
is, that the latter is deemed more necessary to 
worldly success. Knowledge, as I have before 



^6^ INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 

observed, is an instrument by which a man 
influences other men, and carves his way to for- 
tune. It is a power which unlocks the wealth 
of the mine and unbars the treasures of the 
miser. Parents, therefore, seeking the advance- 
ment of their children, take measures to give 
them gainful knowledge ; but, alas, they often 
neglect to cultivate and cherish those treasures 
of the heart which neither moth nor rust can 
corrupt. The enlightened teacher will not 
commit this error. 

It is not necessary to enter into details to 
prove the fact, that our common schools, though 
improved and improving, are in many respects 
defective, and fall short of the wants of the 
community. But what specifically can be 
done ? Let me recommend, as one step, that 
some great effort be made to give better teach- 
ers to our primary schools. Let us look at 
one of these institutions for a moment. In the 
first place, there is a building, and there are 
ranges of benches and crowds of children. But 
is all this a school ? Surely a teacher is wanted. 
And does not the whole success of the establish- 
ment depend upon the character of this teacher? 
Is he not as the soul to the body, giving it 
whatever vitality it may possess? What is the 
object of the school ;? It is not only to instruct 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 263 

the children in various branches of knowledge, 
but to repress bad passions, and, at the same 
time, to develop the better feelings of the heart. 
Now we all know that, simple and easy as the 
task may seem, it is a matter of the greatest 
nicety to adapt instruction to the various capa- 
cities, tastes, and tempers collected together in 
a school-room. And without such adaptation, 
there can be little success. The study of human 
character is one of the most subtle that can be 
presented to our minds, and, when understood, 
it requires infinite address to deal with it effec- 
tively. Even children, guileless and unsophis- 
ticated as they may seem, often baffle our scru- 
tiny, and set at nought the suasive influence of 
authority. There is also great diversity among 
them, and they require to be treated according to 
their several characteristics. Some children are 
habitually superficial, and require to be trained 
in habits of reflection. I have heard of a Scotch 
lad, who, on being asked who made him, replied, 
u Hout, mon, I was na made, I just grew up." 
The celebrated Pascal, on the contrary, was a 
philosopher even in childhood. At a very 
early age, he was taught the ten commandments. 
For several days after, he was observed to 
be measuring the growth of a blade of grass. 
When asked the meaning of this, he replied, 



264 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 

" The fourth commandment says, ( Six days 
shall thou labor, but the seventh is the Sabbath, 
in which thou shalt do no work.' Now I wished 
to ascertain if nature obeyed this great law, 
and therefore measured the grass, to see if it 
grew as much on Sunday as on other days." 
There are children who seem to be endowed 
with sublime thoughts even at a very early 
period. The celebrated Chateauneuf, at the 
age of nine years, was holding a conversation 
with a bishop. "I will give you an orange," 
said the latter, " if you will tell me where God 
is." "I will give you two," said the boy, " if 
you will tell me where he is not." 

Some children display an early relish for wit 
or humor. I have heard of a little boy, who, on 
seeing a man at work whitewashing a wall, 
was observed to smile. " Why do you smile ?" 
said a by-stander. " Don't you see," said the 
boy, " that he is lathering the wall, and when he 
has done I suppose he will shave it." Other 
children run into the habit of taking sound for 
sense, and this, if indulged, leads to ridiculous 
absurdities. I recollect a lad at school who in 
this way became a sort of oracle, and could 
readily answer the profoundest questions. One 
of his companions happening to meet with the 
word fortification, asked him the meaning of 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 265 

it. " Fortification," said the oracle, " fortifica- 
tion — w hy it's two twenty fications, to be sure," 

An early turn for sarcastic retort is manifest- 
ed by some children. I once heard of a boy, 
who, being rebuked by a clergyman for neg- 
lecting to go to church, replied, that he would 
go ii he could be permitted to change his seat. 
" But why do you wish to change your seat?" 
said the minister. " You see," said the boy, 
"I sit over the opposite side of the meeting- 
house, and between me and you there's Judy 
Vicars and Mary Staples, and half a dozen 
other women, with their mouths wide open, and 
they get all the best of the sermon, and when 
it comes to me it's pretty poor stuff!" 

These and a thousand other diversities of 
character appear in children, even in the first 
unfolding of their faculties. Now, consider the 
task of the instructer. He is, in the first place, 
to weave over this diversified group of children 
the web of authority ; he is to train and sub- 
ject them to his government. He is then to sow 
the seeds of knowledge into soils as varied as 
those which stretch from "Lapland to the line." 
And he is not only to sow seed into the mind, 
but he is to cultivate the sou], — he is to nurse, 
to prune, to cherish and bring to perfection, the 
intellectual and moral harvest. And dees not 
23 



266 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 

all this require consummate skill? The com- 
monest mechanic must serve an apprenticeship 
of seven years hefore he can pursue his trade 
with success. Will you trust your watch, with 
all its fine mechanism, its delicate wheels, its 
elastic springs, its hair-strung balance, to a 
blacksmith? And how much finer is the mo- 
ral mechanism of childhood ; how much more 
subtle the springs of passion : how much nicer 
the cog wheels of thought; how much freer 
the changeful balance of the will than any 
semblance of them that can be found in the 
most ingenious of human inventions. And shall 
the management of these be intrusted to an 
inexperienced bungler, who has not learnt his 
art, who has never even served an apprenticeship 
to his trade ? Nay, shall we not seek as teachers 
of youth those who, in addition to skill acquired 
by training and experience, possess the still 
more needful qualifications of natural tact for 
their profession ? 

There is a story of a German schoolmaster, 
which shows the low notions which may be 
entertained of education. Stouber, the prede- 
cessor of Oberlin, the pastor of Waldbach, on 
his arrival at the place, desired to be shown to 
the principal school-house. He was conducted 
into a miserable cottage, where a number of 
children were crowded together, without any oc- 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 267 

cupation. He inquired for the master. "There 
he is," said one, as soon as silence could be 
obtained, pointing to a withered old man, who 
lay on a little bed in one corner. " Are you the 
master, my good friend V asked Stonber. "Yes, 
sir." "And what do you teach the children?" 
"Nothing, sir." "Nothing! how is that?" "Be- 
cause," replied the old man, ' l I know nothing 
myself." " Why then were you appointed the 
schoolmaster?" "Why, sir, I had been taking 
care of the Waldbach pigs for a number of 
years, and when I got too old and infirm for 
that employment they sent me here to take 
care of the children." 

This anecdote may evince a degree of stu- 
pidity not to be met with in this country ; 
but even here, there is a popular and preva- 
lent notion that any body can be a school- 
master. I have heard of a man who contended 
that learning in a teacher was a positive hin- 
drance to success. He was accustomed to 
illustrate his opinions in the following man- 
ner : " When the prophet desired to blow down 
the walls of Jericho, he did not take a brass 
trumpet or a polished French horn: but he 
took a ram's horn, a plain natural ram's horn, 
just as it grew. And so if you desire to 
overturn the Jericho of ignorance, you must 



268 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 

not take a college learnt gentleman, but a plain, 
natural, ram's-horn sort of a man, like me." 

Now this may seem a little too absurd, but 
do not some people entertain opinions analogous 
to these ? Do not some persons give a color of 
plausibility to this story by their practice? Is 
it not the current notion of society, that of the 
intelligent and talented we must make lawyers, 
physicians and clergymen, and pick out school- 
masters from what are left? Ought we not to 
reverse this system, and select for this most im- 
portant of all occupations the very best talents 
which are produced among us? And to secure 
these, ought we not to make the profession of a 
schoolmaster both lucrative and honorable ? 
Ought we not to establish seminaries where the 
art of instructing children may be thoroughly 
taught ? Let us not indulge the notion that in- 
stinct will make a good teacher. Let us not 
fancy that while every other art, including even 
the commonest trade, requires regular instruc- 
tion or long apprenticeship, the most im- 
portant and most difficult of all arts, comes by 
chance. Ought we not — I speak of the country 
at large — to hold out inducements to men of ta- 
lents to prepare themselves, by a specific educa- 
tion and careful training, as instructers ; and to 
devote themselves to this as the settled occupa- 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 269 

tion of life? Is it not short-sighted to commit 
children, as is the case in many parts of the 
country, to the care of persons who take up 
the vocation of teachers as a casual employ- 
ment, and who are alike destitute of experience 
and special preparation for the task? Even the 
tiller of the soil must be instructed in his art, 
— should not the cultivator of the intellect and 
the heart be instructed in his ? 

It may be true, as is often said, that' any body 
can keep a school," but to keep a good one re- 
quires natural talents and special preparation. 
There is a great deal about the governing and 
teaching of children that is as truly technical 
as the disciplining an army or conducting a 
campaign. Whoever has been in the habit of 
visiting schools must have seen a prodigious 
difference between them. Some are well and 
some are ill governed. In some, the children 
are well instructed ; in others, more than half 
the scholars are rather injured that benefited. 
And why is this difference? Plainly because 
one understands his vocation and another does 
not. One has learnt how difficulties are to be 
overcome, and how success is to be obtained in 
governing children, and in developing their va- 
rious faculties ; while the other is uninstructed 
in these arts. 

23* 



270 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 

Children, if negligently taught, will often get 
into their minds absurd notions, which it is al- 
most impossible to eradicate. Miss Hamilton, in 
her admirable work on Education, states that 
when a child, she read the passage of Scripture, 
" on this hang all the law and the prophets," 
as an injunction, a command, and accordingly 
she fancied the law and the prophets hanging 
up in a row on pegs ! And she remarks, that 
so strong hold did this ludicrous error take of 
her mind, that it often occurred to her after she 
arrived at mature years. I once knew a boy, 
in the olden days of Webster's Grammar, who 
found this definition in his book: " A noun is 
the name of a thing, as horse, hair, justice." 
But he chanced to misconceive it, and read it 
thus : A noun is the name of a thing, as horse- 
hair justice. He was of a reflecting turn, and 
long he pondered over the wonderful mysteries 
of a noun. But in vain ; he could not make it 
out. His father was a justice of the peace, and 
one day, when the boy went home, the old gen- 
tleman was holding a justice's court. There he 
sat in state, among a crowd of people, on an old- 
fashioned horse-hair settee. A new light now 
broke in upon our young hero's mind. "My 
father, said he, mentally," is a horse-hair justice, 
and therefore a noun ! 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 271 

Such arc some of the grotesque blunders to 
which children are exposed by negligent and 
stupid teachers. Let me state a fact of a dif- 
ferent kind, to show the power of a skilful in- 
structor in the management of his pupils. A 
few years since, I visited the celebrated infant 
school of Wilderspin, in London. It consisted 
of two hundred children, all belonging to the 
poorest classes. They were accustomed to en- 
ter the school-room through an alley six feet 
wide. In the centre of this, Wilderspin placed 
a mountain daisy, in a flower-pot, and directed 
the scholars not to disturb it. For several 
months, the little flower remained untouched 
by a careless foot or a wanton hand ! And 
how did this individual acquire such power in 
the government of children? By making his 
profession a study. He read the character of 
children with deep attention. He discovered 
amid their diversities certain principles, common 
to all. Among these he marked the well-known 
sympathy of child with child. Upon this he 
founded a system of mutual instruction, which 
produced the most surprising results. I would 
have every teacher possess the spirit of Wilder- 
spin. I would have him love his vocation. I 
would have him devote his life to it, study all 



272 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 

its details, collect knowledge from books and 
wisdom from experience. 

We all know that great attention has recently 
been paid to common school education. The 
minds of great men, especially in Europe, have 
been turned to this engrossing subject, and many 
interesting discoveries and improvements in the 
art of teaching have been made. I would have 
the instructer follow up the progress of his pro- 
fession and keep pace with the march of dis- 
covery. If there is a new and useful invention, 
in any part of the world, for propelling a steam- 
boat or a locomotive, it is immediately brought 
into use among us. In such matters, we do 
not linger behind other nations ; nay, in many 
things we take the lead. Now let us consider 
that there is no coitntry to which general edu- 
cation is so important as this ; for the success 
of our government, the happiness of the nation, 
depend upon it. The people here are the sove- 
reigns, and if they are ignorant what must their 
dominion be 1 I hope, therefore, that while we 
see a spirit abroad that leads us to cherish enter- 
prise and improvement in steamboats, railroads, 
and spinning jennies, we may not prove lag- 
gards in this great movement of common school 
education. Let parents take this matter to 
heart. Let them, as a first step, seek for good 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 273 

teachers. Let us all consider the exigent neces- 
sity of having such in our common schools. If 
a man has no children, let his philanthropy be 
excited by regarding the great benefits which 
a single teacher of the right kind may produce 
in a lifetime. In thirty years, he may instruct 
seven hundred and fifty children. He may 
therefore exert a decisive influence in forming 
the character and shaping the destiny of this 
number of persons. One man may thus almost 
ensure the happiness of seven hundred and fifty 
people ! I fear that it may often happen that an 
individual passes through life without being 
able to say at its close that he has made one 
fellow-being better or happier. And this may 
be because he has dealt only with grown-up 
men, who are hard to move. But childhood is 
more susceptible. He who devotes himself to 
its cultivation with zeal and intelligence, cannot 
fail of that noble recompense which is awarded 
to the benefactor of mankind. To such a one, 
I would sooner raise the marble statue than to 
the victor in a hundred fields ! 

While, therefore, I would honor the accom- 
plished schoolmaster, I would shun the quack 
and pretender, who, never having been instruct- 
ed himself, presumes to teach others. I would 
not take an uncouth apprentice in learning, 



274 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 

and intrust the shaping of the immortal mind 
to him, even though I could save by it five or 
ten dollars a month to a school district. I 
would not spare the purse if thereby I starved 
or stinted the intellect of the rising generation. 
I would in this, as in other matters, employ a 
good workman, and pay him well. But are 
such teachers to be found? 

The public mind is roused to this subject, 
and several normal schools, charged with the 
high duty of qualifying men and women to 
become teachers, are now in operation. We 
hope for them abundant success. But, to 
render them useful in the highest degree of 
which they are capable, they should not become 
the hobbies of theorists, nor the instruments of 
disseminating questionable notions in philosophy, 
religion, or the arts of instruction. Let them 
adopt every improvement, but be sure to carry 
the sympathy and confidence of the community 
with them. 

Nor let it be supposed that any preparation, 
in any seminary, can of course produce compe- 
tent instructors of youth. There must be 
native fitness — knack — tact — besides artisti- 
cal skill. It may be often said of the school- 
master, as the poet, — he is horn, not made. As 
some cannot be musicians, or painters, so some 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 275 

will become such, in spite of every obstacle. 
The same may be said in respect to school- 
teachers. We must therefore look alike to 
nature, and the aids which nature may receive 
from art, to supply our seminaries with fitting 
guides. 

It may be hardly necessary to add that scholar- 
ship does not, of itself, qualify a man to be a 
teacher. A person may have a great deal of 
knowledge, and yet have a bungling way of 
communicating it to others. Nor should per- 
sonal qualities be wholly overlooked. A teach- 
er of children should have a bland countenance. 
He should have a warm heart, pouring out 
habitual sunshine through his face and de- 
meanor. He should have no awkwardness 
of manner, no obliquity of temper, no dis- 
agreeable peculiarities which excite ridicule, 
and no weaknesses which beget a sneer. 
Children are keen observers in general, and 
every school has some special Paul Pry, who 
will sift the character of the teacher, and 
show to every body the particles of which 
it is composed. If, therefore, a teacher would 
preserve his authority, he must secure the re- 
spect of the school, and this cannot be done if 
there is any thing about him to excite 
contempt. 



276 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 

Beside all this, I deem it essential that a 
teacher should possess good breeding. His man- 
ners should be both gracious and polite. In 
this, he should be an example to those he would 
instruct. Manners, both good and ill, are catch- 
ing. It were better to expose your children to 
an infectious disease than to place them under 
the tutelage of an awkward, crusty, ill-bred 
teacher. Such a one is very apt to leave his 
impress upon his scholars, as the waffle-iron is 
impressed upon the cake that is baked in it. 
Polished and gracious manners are also readily 
copied by children, and thus a well-bred teacher 
may be reflected in the demeanor of every 
member of his school. 

I cannot better illustrate my views on this 
subject than by describing two teachers whom 
I knew in boyhood. They were both veterans 
in their vocation. One of them, familiarly 
known by the name of master Stebbins, was 
already advanced in years when he took out 
his buck-handled penknife and began to point 
out to me the cabalistic mysteries of the spelling 
book. I remember him well. He had a large 
blue eye, a mild expression of countenance, 
and when I first stood before him, looking up 
to his face with profound awe, I remember how 
that awe melted away before the kindly smile 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 277 

that he bestowed upon me. I loved him from 
the first, though my affection was perhaps a little 
chastened by the sight of a smart birch stick, 
with the extreme point a little shivered and 
peeled, lying upon the table. He was a kind- 
hearted, handsome old gentleman, with a stoop 
in the shoulder, which gave a touch of humility 
to his bearing, that inclined every heart in his 
favor. He was a lover of authority, and gave a 
somewhat literal construction to that passage of 
Scripture which commands us not to spare the 
rod. He believed every thing in the Bible, and, 
being of a practical turn, he did not confine 
himself in this matter to abstract theory. Still, 
he was kind-hearted, and if he bestowed the 
birch, it was in sorrow rather than in anger. 
He wrote a full, round, beautiful hand ; he was 
very thorough in spelling; he was a capital 
reader himself, and delighted in pupils who 
followed his example in this. He loved arith- 
metic. The slate and pencil and Daboll, ever 
seemed to possess the charms of romance for 
him. In short, master Stcbbins was at once an 
experienced teacher and well-bred gentleman, 
of the old school. He was tidy and precise in 
his dress, abstemious in his habits of eating 
and drinking, exact in matters of time, which 

were regulated by a thick, turnip-shaped silver 

24 



278 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 

watch. He was of an even pace, aided by a 
smooth hickory cane with an ivory head. And 
though he was a man of moderate abilities 
and of no great compass of learning, he was an 
eminently successful teacher. He may have 
passed to his tomb, but the benefits of his dis- 
creet instruction are living in numerous indi- 
viduals, now in the full vigor of manhood. 

I knew another teacher, whom we will call 
W******. I do not blame him that he was 
six feet two inches high, that he was extremely 
lank and lean, that in walking he swung his 
legs forward in a shambling fashion, that his 
face was long, pallid and cadaverous. I do not 
blame him for all this, but I think it was a mis- 
take that the school committee employed him 
as a teacher. He was a man of considerable 
scholarship, but he was supercilious, conceited 
and pedantic. He must perhaps be forgiven 
for this, for I recollect that he had a watch-key, 
consisting of a large oblong piece of pinchbeck, 
marked with these mysterious figures, $BK. 
It swung from his fob, at the end of a long 
steel chain, and was thus as ostentatiously 
displayed to the people of the village, as the 
tavern sign. It was understood to mean that 
the favored proprietor had been to college, and 
there admitted to some secret lore, forbidden to 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 279 

common mortals. This idea was justified by 
the air of superiority assumed by the wearer 
of the mysterious watch-key. Surely, a man 
who has such a title to our reverence, must not 
be censured if he looks with sovereign contempt 
upon common men. So thought master W. 
Accordingly, when adjusted upon his seat at 
school, he sat with the corners of his mouth 
drawn down, and the outer sweep of his eye- 
brows drawn up, with an awful, ghastly and 
imperious aspect. But of all the places I have 
ever seen, the sehool-house under his dynasty 
was the most dismal and gloomy. The greater 
part of the scholars, overawed and trampled 
down, sat in their seats mouthing and mimick- 
ing the master, not. by design, but from an un- 
conscious sympathy with the presiding deity 
of the place. There were a few enterprising 
spirits, however, upon whom severity exerted 
no terror, and these were a dreadful annoyance 
to dominie W. They mimicked his awkward 
gait and his air of solemn conceit. They drew 
portraits of him on the sides of the school- 
house in charcoal. One of them ventured 
upon a translation of the mystic watch-key. as 
follows: — "<I> B K, which is, being interpreted, 
Fie Betty Karter." This was written on a piece 
of paper and laid upon W.'s desk. There was 



280 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 

a deep sense of injury depicted on his visage 
as he read this ; for in his heart he had as ten- 
der a regard for a maiden of the village, Miss 
Elizabeth Carter, as a conceited old bachelor 
can have for any thing but himself. The de- 
tection of the perpetrators of this joke was as 
serious a matter to W. as the settling the bal- 
ance of power in Europe with a congress of 
diplomatists; and Machiavel was never con- 
sulted more thoroughly in one case than he 
was in the other. By bribes and threats, the of- 
fender was detected, and he was then cudgelled, 
the rascality in him being thus stimulated and 
roused to double activity. Many a smart stick 
was worn out upon the rogues of the school, 
but they grew rebellious in exact proportion to 
the severity of their punishment. The truth is 
that this pompous pedagogue was ever thinking 
of himself. Selfishness curdled the last drop 
of human kindness in his breast. He was also 
capricious and unjust, and sometimes displayed 
his mighty littleness in vengeful discipline of 
the children under his care. The administra- 
tion of that man was fraught with serious mis- 
chief. The whole energy of the school was 
wasted in over- government; there was a prison- 
like darkness there, that shadowed the mind, 
chilled the heart, and stinted the growth of 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 



281 



knowledge, if perchance the sprouts shot up 
from the soil. What a baleful influence must 
such a man exert upon the after life of those 
placed under his care ! How little must be 
the respect for knowledge associated with such 
an image ! How likely are children, thus made 
to witness and feel injustice, to cultivate the 
spirit of the outlaw, and grow up with a savage 
determination to revenge on others the wrongs 
they have themselves experienced ! Yet pa- 
rents sometimes place their children under the 
care of such teachers, and, because they will 
not look into the matter, expose them to all the 
evils which may follow. 

Let parents therefore, take an active interest 
in the subject of teachers, and see that they are 
wisely chosen. Beware of placing your children 
under the care of capricious, tyrannical, or ill- 
tempered instructers ! A school is a despotism 
of the most unlimited kind. There is no check 
to the will of the monarch. If he is disposed 
to exercise his authority oppressively, he can- 
not be resisted : the poor children must submit 
and suffer. But the greater evil is not their 
immediate unhappiness ; their souls are con- 
taminated by evil example, by witnessing the 
display of injustice, partiality, and bad passions 
in one whose example and authority they are 
24* 



282 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 

called upon to respect. Wickedness is therefore 
inculcated, instead of virtue. Beside, the spirit 
of reprisal is ever roused by injustice. The 
child who is made to feel that he is under the 
dominion of one who does not love equity, will 
very soon learn to love revenge, and will, ere 
long, become unscrupulous as to the mode of 
obtaining it. He will also get the opinion that 
wrong doing is common among mankind ; and 
he will sink himself to this supposed standard 
of society. He will grow up with the idea that 
life is a game, in which each is to play his part, 
without regard to the rights, feelings, or inte- 
rests of others. If he goes on unchecked to 
manhood, he is a promising candidate for the 
state-prison. 

Though we present strongly the evils which 
arise from harshness, despotism, and injustice, in 
a teacher, let no one be led into placing their 
children under the charge of those whose gov- 
ernment is weak or ineffectual. All will admit 
that order is indispensable in a school : it is 
impossible that the studies should be pursued 
without it. But this order is not the only, nor 
even the highest, object of school government. 
In another place, we have endeavored to set 
forth the necessity of obedience, as the corner- 
stone of virtue — the basis of all good moral 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 283 

training. This obedience, which is the recog- 
nition of law springing from a higher source 
than self, should be begun at the fireside and 
cherished and perfected at school. It is one of 
the first and most important duties of the 
teacher to train the heart — the soul of his pupil 
in the observance of rules, laws, obligations. 
He must not be content with external obedience, 
for that leads to hypocrisy ; he must not obtain 
obedience by flattery, for that implies no self- 
sacrifice, and, of course, no submission. 

It is clear that, in the discharge of this high 
duty, the teacher has often a most difficult and 
trying task to perform. In our cities especially, 
- — where the schools are large, and the unfortu- 
nate offspring of vicious parents, taught vice 
and crime by daily example, form a consider- 
able portion of the whole number of pupils, — 
he is called upon for the exercise of a degree of 
virtue and skill rarely united in a single indi- 
vidual. Nor is his burden lightened by consid- 
ering the jealous and sensitive tribunal which 
encircles him, in the parents. and the public at 
large, for whom he acts. In an especial degree 
is his situation rendered trying when, as at the 
present day, a morbid sensibility has crept into 
the bosom of society as to the use of one of the 
most essential and indispensable instruments of 
moral training, — that of corporeal punishment. 



284 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 

It is well known that the question whether 
this is ever admissible, is now warmly discussed. 
There are a few persons who take the negative 
of this, and would positively banish the rod 
and every other means of bodily chastisement, 
not only from our seminaries, but from the 
fireside. We have already said that we be- 
lieve some children may be well and thorough- 
ly governed without this, and therefore some 
families, and possibly some schools, where the 
teachers select their pupils, may be well man- 
aged without it. Still these cases are exceed- 
ingly rare, and we can conceive of nothing 
more dangerous than the attempt to lay aside 
the rod as a universal, or even a general 
rule. 

The inevitable consequences of this are of 
the most fatal and alarming character. Order, 
as we have said, is to be maintained in schools. 
But how, if corporeal punishment be prohibited? 
What is to be done with those hard, deter- 
mined, indomitable spirits, familiar to the obser- 
vation of all, who resist authority alike by all 
the instincts of their nature and the impulses 
of habit ? They are, of course, to be reasoned 
with ; appeals are to be made to reason, to 
love, and to conscience : but suppose these are 
despised ; what then ? What is to be done 
with the reprobate ? " Turn him into the 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 285 

streets, — Ephraim is joined to idols, let him 
alone." T n ' s experiment was tried in Phila- 
delphia, and the streets speedily became infest- 
ed with a troop of boys precocious iu every 
species of iniquity. It is said that, in the bloody 
riots which occurred there some years ago, these 
outcasts from the schools bore a leading part, 
and were among the foremost in promoting 
bloodshed and desolation. What other result 
could have been reasonably anticipated ? 

We have not space to go fully into this sub- 
ject ; yet we cannot close our remarks' upon it 
without suggesting to parents the wisdom of 
being guided by experience and the testimony 
of ages in this matter. The idea of governing 
children without authority based on power, is 
just as idle as to expect that society can be 
thus governed. It proceeds upon an assumption 
that man is not ''prone to evil as the sparks 
fly upward." Place a child in favorable cir- 
cumstances, says Mr. Owen, the originator and 
leader of this moral suasion school, and he 
will as naturally follow in the paths of virtue 
as water will flow in a descending channel. 
"J have," says he, "made of the same bale of 
cotton a coarse wrapper and a delicate muslin, 
Give me the control of human beings, and I 
will in like manner manufacture them as I 
please." How flatly is this view of man cot> 



286 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 

tradicted, not only by the wisest and profound- 
est of books, but by all the other great lights of 
the world — Shakspeare, Milton, Pope, John- 
son, and others. All these regard man as an err- 
ing, wayward, sinful being — sinful in fact, sinful 
in the course of nature ; and only to be brought 
to a state of virtue by humiliation. " Whom 
the Lord loveth he chasteneth," is a truth no 
more clear to the eye of the Christian than to 
that of the attentive and candid philosopher. 
Man is selfish, and his selfishness, indulged, 
ever tends to forgetfulness of the rights of 
others. It is necessary that he should be sub- 
jected to the moral law — love to God and his 
neighbor. This alone can save him. Yet this 
he resists from very infancy. "I will, and I 
won't," are among the very first lispings of life. 
The mistake of the moral suasionist lies in 
maintaining that the child has in himself not 
only a perception of the moral law, but a loill 
to adopt it. Where is the proof of this ? What 
a cloud of witnesses are against it ! How then 
is this law to be enforced upon the child ? 
How is obedience, which his nature resists, to 
become a part of his life? By the appointed 
means of Heaven, — parental government and 
discipline, enforced at home, and followed up ill 
all the after instrumentalities of education — a 
government and discipline, whether of force or 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 287 

otherwise, always securing that humility which 
makes it easy, pleasant, desirable, to obey. 
Such means, and such only, have the assured 
promise of God's blessing. 

After these remarks, it is hardly necessary to 
answer the objections urged against corporeal 
punishment. Yet a few words of a practical 
tendency on these points may not be amiss. 
We are told that such discipline is, in its very 
nature, hardening to the heart ; that, whether ap- 
plied by the parent or teacher, it begets aversion, 
instead of docility, in the mind. This is doubt- 
less true of the abase, but certainly not of the 
proper use, of this species of chastisement. 
Indeed, the actual evils of even the former are 
doubtless overrated. It is well known that, in 
China, where the discipline is severe, the pre- 
vailing virtue — religious as well as civil — is 
obedience to parents. Filial piety is there not 
only the constant theme of eulogy, as marking 
the highest moral elevation, but it is common, 
nay, almost universal. This implies not only 
external but internal obedience, founded on 
reason and love, and is well illustrated by an 
affecting instance familiar to most readers. A 
Chinese youth, whose mother, while living, was 
peculiarly afraid of thunder, was once, after her 
death, seen, during a thunder-storm, standing 
over her tomb, saying, " Mother, be not fright- 
ened : thy son is here." 



288 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 

It is said that, in cases where chastisement 
does not beget resistance, it breaks the spirit, 
and destroys individuality of character. What 
is meant here by spirit? Nothing more nor 
less than that imperious will which would 
trample on every thing that stands in its way. 
And should not this be broken ? We are told 
that Aaron Burr, when a child, ran away from 
home, and went on board a vessel. When he 
saw some one coming to fetch him, he climbed 
to the topmast, and defied pursuit. Such, says 
his biographer, eulogistically, was the spirit he 
displayed even in boyhood. It was because 
that spirit was not subdued, because his moral 
obliquity was not chastised out of him in early 
life, that his splendid abilities were eclipsed, 
and his name handed down to enduring infamy. 
Among the anecdotes of Napoleon's childhood 
is one which tells us that, on a particular occa- 
sion, he remained in the garden during a thun- 
der-storm, absolutely refusing to come in at the 
call of his mother. The story does not tell us 
that punishment followed this act of disobedi- 
ence. We have, indeed, no reason to suppose 
that he was subjected to proper early discipline ; 
and we cannot doubt that this spirit of his 
youth, nurtured with advancing years, grew at 
last into that gigantic and terrific ambition 
which has strewed the fairest portions of the 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION* 289 

earth with unnumbered graves. Would it not 
have been better that the spirit of the young 
Corsican had been subdued and broken, and 
that he had lost, through proper discipline, so 
much of his individuality, as to be amenable to 
laws, human and divine ? 

Let us turn to another example — that of 
Washington. How was his character — the ad- 
miration of the world — formed ? In childhood 
we know that he was passionate and head- 
strong. Had his mother been a moral suasionist 
of the modern school, we have every reason to 
suppose that his propensities would have been 
indulged, and that his name and fame had been 
very different from what they are. We know 
from her character, and from glimpses of histo- 
ry, that Washington was rigidly subjected to 
parental authority in childhood • and we have 
no reason to doubt that bodily chastisement was 
among the instrumentalities for securing his 
early, constant, and complete obedience. To 
these circumstances — to this breaking of his 
spirit — our country and mankind are doubtless 
indebted for the most perfect character to be 
found in the pages of modern history — a character 
which owes its chief beauty to the sacrifice of self 
before the higher requisitions of the moral law. 
What a debt does the world owe, in this simple 
instance alone, to thorough discipline ? What a 
25 



290 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 

curse to mankind had it proved, if the loose 
notions of our day had presided at the fireside 7 
and in the school, where George Washington 
received his education ! 

Let parents ponder these things deeply. In 
the course of providence, some one of those 
master spirits, who, "from the foundation of 
the world, have been thundering at the gates of 
power," may be intrusted to their care. It 
is for them to say, in such a case, what shall be 
his character. Shall he be subdued by thorough 
training, and prove a blessing to mankind, as 
in the instance of Washington ? or shall he be 
left to his impulses, and prove a scourge to his 
country and his kind, as in the cases of Burr 
and Bonaparte ? 

With these views, we deem it our duty to 
warn parents against yielding to the seductive 
theory of government without corporeal pun- 
ishment, whether at home or at school. The 
thing sounds well, and coincides with that 
natural pride of the human heart which revolts 
at the idea of entering into the "kingdom of 
heaven through much tribulation." Mankind 
would in general prefer going thither on their 
own merits, and by the cultivation of their own 
inherent good qualities. The reception of 
virtue, as the gift of God, through the chastening 
of pride, is not relished by the unreflecting mind. 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 291 

Let fathers and mothers bew-ire how they 
are drawn into the path of evil by the temp- 
tation which now besets them. Nor let them 
be misguided by another, to which they are 
exposed. A parent is loath to believe his child 
guilty of wrong, and is very apt, if the lat- 
ter is chastised by his teacher, to take part 
against him, not upon the merits of the case, 
but through the suggestions of sympathy and 
pride alone. Let society be fortified against these 
seductive sins, and especially at a time when 
a sinister current of opinion is abroad, tending 
to give fatal efficacy to errors which spring up 
spontaneously in the breast. Let parents array 
themselves firmly in opposition to the abuses 
of corporeal punishment, and still as firmly 
against its abolition. 

OTHER SEMINARIES. 

It is not necessary for my plan to enter at 
large into a full discussion of high schools, 
academies and colleges. Some of these are of 
great utility, and deserve encouragement at the 
hands of the public. The high schools, espe- 
cially, which afford the means of perfecting 
scholars in those studies begun at the common 
school, and of instruction in other branches 
of knowledge, as Natural History, Natural 
Philosonhv, Chemistry, Botany, Mineralogy 



292 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 

&c.j are of the first importance. They are in 
their nature possessed of many qualities akin 
to the common schools. They are, or ought ta 
be, constructed on a plan which will render 
them easy of access, even to the poor. They 
are, or ought to be, numerous, affording the 
opportunity to all children in our larger towns, 
who desire it, of acquiring a pretty thorough 
English education. But when children are sent 
to these schools, they should still be under the 
watchful guardianship of their parents. These 
should continue to take an interest in their edu- 
cation, and regard the high school, not as super- 
seding the fireside seminary, or as justifying a 
relaxation of duty on their part; on the con- 
trary, as only helping out the parent m his high 
task of giving to his child a vigorous mind in a 
sound body. 

But while the high school may thus claim 
encouragement, and thus prove useful, it ought 
by no means to interfere with the primary 
schools. The great effort of the public should 
be to improve the latter. Spread common 
schools throughout the community, and raise 
the standard of education in them to a high 
mark, and the higher seminary will flourish of 
course. If you enlighten the whole comm unity, 
you will promote a general desire for better and 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 293 

still better seminaries. But let every friend to 
public prosperity take care not to permit high 
schools, or any other institutions, to draw ofF 
the public interest or public support from the 
district schools. Let the men of influence in 
every town and village cherish these institu- 
tions, send their own children to them as far as 
may be, secure to them good teachers, and do 
whatever else may be necessary to make them 
accomplish the great ends for which they are 
instituted. 

Our academies are important, but, like other 
seminaries, they are good or ill according to 
their management. Under the charge of well- 
trained and faithful instructers, they become 
blessings to their immediate pupils and the 
community at large. Those which are devoted 
to the preparation of young persons for the 
practical duties of life are deserving of special 
encouragement, if wisely conducted. There 
are many private seminaries in the country, 
which rank with our high schools and acade- 
mies, and which, from the energy and vigil- 
ance with which they are conducted, arising 
from the concentrated interest of the superin- 
tendent, may be regarded as among the. most 
valuable of our institutions. It is a curious 
fact, that in almost all the seminaries which 
25* 



294 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 

have originated in individual enterprise and 
rest upon individual responsibility, the teachers 
hold an intimate and kindly intercourse with 
the pupils, supplying, in a great degree 3 and in 
some instances fully, the place of parents. It 
is seldom that we find a chartered institution, 
sustained by its own funds, where this state of 
things exists. If parents are obliged to send 
their children from home for instruction, it will 
be well for them to see that they are placed in 
schools where the principal feels it to be a duty 
to act as a father to his pupils, and at the same 
time has the happy faculty of gaining the kindly 
position of a parent in their hearts. 

As to colleges and universities, I need say but 
little. They originated in ages of darkness, 
long before our humble village seminaries were 
dreamed of. They were not designed as bene- 
fits to the whole community, by aiding in the 
general diffusion of knowledge ; on the contra- 
ry, they were connected with a selfish scheme 
of imparting light to the few and withholding it 
from the many. In later times, they have been 
encouraged from a better feeling, and, in this 
country, colleges have been of incalculable bene- 
fit ; but it has been affirmed, by high authority, 
that the two great universities of Oxford and 
Cambridge, in England, the most splendid estab- 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 295 

lishments of the kind in the world, have been 
for the last half century actual hindrances to 
the progress of knowledge. The plain truth is, 
that human improvement, like heat in water, 
works upward and not downward. If you 
would warm the whole mass, begin at the bot- 
tom. So, in society, if you would enlighten 
the community at large, if you would raise the 
standard of human character, begin with the 
people. Educate them, and fear not that we 
shall have among us men of great learning and 
scholarship, even though you endow no colleges 
for their special benefit. What higher stimulus 
can you bring to act upon genius and talent than 
to throw around them an enlightened and well 
educated people? Educate them, and colleges 
and universities may be safely left to stand or 
fall, as public opinion may decree. When the 
people at large are well instructed, institutions 
of a high grade, suited to the wants of the com- 
munity, will spring up and receive encourage- 
ment. An artificial impulse is not wanted, 
even now, to stimulate the rich and the intelli- 
gent to give an expensive education to their chil- 
dren. They set a high value upon whatever 
may distinguish their offspring and raise them 
above others, and will take means to secure 
these. But the poor and the ignorant need 



296 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 

encouragement and stimulus. Aid the district 
school, therefore, and do not divert either public 
money or public sympathy from this true point 
of effort and philanthropy. 

I know the arguments in favor of colleges, 
and admit their force. We doubtless need in- 
stitutions where youth may be fitted for the 
learned professions. We need institutions where 
a love of science and scholarship may be cher- 
ished, and where a spirit may be engendered 
that will ever keep alive the efforts to dissemi- 
nate learning over society at large. But are 
richly endowed seminaries, in our country, the 
best device for accomplishing these desirable 
objects ? 

If a college has ample funds to sustain its 
professors, will they not, according to the com- 
mon course of human events, become indolent, 
indifferent, or inefficient? Their salaries are 
secure, the institution is safe, whether they toil 
or not. Here and there an individual may be 
found who will triumph over the seductive 
influence of such circumstances, but in general, 
these will prove fatal to that activity, vigor and 
vigilance necessary to render a seminary of this 
kind useful. The whole establishment will fall 
into a lazy routine, the officers will be negli- 
gent and the pupils indifferent. The funds of 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 297 

the college will be as a carcass to the eagles, 
and among those gathered to share in the spoils, 
a spirit, is likely to reign which will overlook 
duty in the pursuit of selfish ends. Such a col- 
lege may have a celebrated scholar for a picsi- 
dent and learned men for teachers ; it may have 
a splendid library and costly cabinets, and a 
noble philosophical apparatus in every depart- 
ment of science; but it will still be an ineffi- 
cient instrument of education. Once in a while 
it may produce a brilliant scholar, but the ma- 
jority of graduates will be injured, rather than 
benefited. Nine out of ten will waste the best 
period of life for instruction, and thus be sub- 
jected to irremediable loss. 

Nor is this all. In such a college, the pupils 
are left almost wholly to their own guidance. 
Separated from their parents, at the most stormy 
period of life, when more than ever they need 
the chart and compass of parental counsel, they 
are cast loose upon an institution where the 
teachers stand aloof, holding no other than a 
cold official intercourse with them, and usually 
conducting in such a manner as to be looked 
upon, not as friends, but as adversaries. Thus 
the college pupil is thrown into the society of 
young men, and subjected to the influence of a 
community, among whom all the yesty passions 



298 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 

of early manhood are bursting forth, and this 
too without a friend to chasten, to control, and 
to warn. The young child, as yet untutored in 
wickedness, comes home from the village school, 
and in simplicity tells the mother all that it sees 
and hears, and thus gives her the opportunity 
to warn and correct it. But the position of the 
student at college, separated from his parents, 
is widely different. He is now exposed to vices 
which seek concealment, and which at the same 
time appeal with seductive force to his bosom. 
Will he not be likely to become their victim, 
and, if so, will not all the circumstances of the 
case operate to dig deep and render impassable 
that gulf which so often comes between young 
men and their parents ? Children educated at 
home, or near home, so as to sustain a frequent, 
almost daily, intercourse with parents, keep up 
their habits of intimacy, which afford, espe- 
cially to the mother, so many opportunities for 
kindly and useful counsel. But if once sent to 
college, if once touched with college vices, and 
tinctured with the sophomoric conceit which is 
apt to infect collegians, is there not an end to 
that parental sway, which owed its chief influ- 
ence to an intimate, kindly confidence? Let 
me ask parents, when their sons have returned 
from college, even garnished with its laurels, 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 



299 



whether they have not often felt that these are 
a poor compensation for the sundering of those 
intimate ties which in other days united the 
heart of the child in familiar sympathy with 
the parent? 

Such is the general course of things in the 
rich college. Fortified by ample endowments, 
what salutary fear of public opinion will lash 
its managers up to a discharge of their duty? 
Aware that mankind seldom despise what is 
costly, and are apt to look with reverence upon 
what is vast, they know that the mighty uni- 
versity is entrenched behind a strong prejudice. 
If any one assails it, it is easy to repel the attack 
by. calling hard names, and charging upon the 
enemy a desire to hinder the progress of know- 
ledge and eclipse the light of learning. Beside, 
there is something very fascinating to the minds 
of parents and pupils in a rich college. It is 
esteemed an honor to be among its graduates. 
It is a mark of distinction, a badge of superi- 
ority, to hold a parchment with a blue ribbon 
from such an institution. As obesity is the 
sign of gentility in Japan, to be a graduate 
of such a seminary is a patent of nobility in 
other countries. The parents and pupils are of 
course the champions of an establishment which 
confers such benefits on them, and will draw 



300 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 

the sword of controversy in its behalf when it 
is assailed. Sure of such aid, what necessity 
for the heads of a university to take the trouble 
of watchful, laborious and careful instruction? 

The esprit de corps , engendered among the 
pupils of a college, is also a powerful support 
of the institution. It operates like the bonds 
between the members of the monastic orders, 
allying them together by the spell of a common 
sympathy. A graduate of a college is ever the 
ready supporter of his Alma Mater. If he is 
in the legislative hall and she asks for money, 
will he not give it ? If she is attacked, will he 
not defend her ? Will he not ever be her ready 
champion, supporting her from affection, whether 
right or wrong ? And are not the skilful wri- 
ters, the eloquent pleaders of our country, thus 
bribed to do battle in behalf of the colleges, 
even though they may be public evils 1 

How then can such an institution be subjected 
to the wholesome influence of a responsibility 
to public opinion 1 Its stability does not depend 
upon its good management. It is, at least to 
some extent, placed beyond the reach of cor- 
rection and chastisement at the hand of society. , 
It has only to guard against gross abuses, and 
then it may hold the proud tenor of its way, 
secure of the support of the learned and the 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 301 

patronage of the powerful, even though it ma^ 
on the whole prove injurious to society. 

I do not by these remarks intend to point at 
any particular seminary. I am only showing 
the general tendency of rich endowments on 
literary institutions. By placing them above 
the necessity of vigilant and steadfast exertion 
on the part of the managers and teachers, the 
greatest inducements and the most active and 
sure impellents to usefulness are withdrawn. 
If parents therefore are desirous of sending 
their children to a college, let them not be be- 
guiled by a mere prejudice. Let them not prefer 
an institution because it is rich. On the con- 
trary, poverty should rather be a recommenda- 
tion. The institutions which depend on the 
good name they may get by their activity, vigor 
and just management, are likely to be the best. 

Private institutions, on so small a scale as to 
allow the teacher to have intimate intercourse 
with each pupil, and depending wholly upon 
their good management for success, could such 
be established and sustained, would, in my 
humble judgment, be preferable to chartered 
colleges. But until such can be found, parents, 
who wish to give their sons a classical educa- 
tion, must choose between such institutions as 
exist. Let them choose, then, considering the 
26 



302 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 

dangers to which their children may be exposed 
if placed in ill-conducted seminaries. Let them 
consider too that there is no charm in a college 
which ensures any benefit whatever. It is a 
fact, well established, that many young men 
graduate, knowing little more than when they 
entered. Not more than one in five really im- 
proves the advantages which the college affords. 
Not more than one in five fulfils the hopes and 
expectations of his friends in sending him to col- 
lege. Beside this, many young men are taught 
vices at these seminaries which they never shake 
off — many who enter them in purity go forth 
corrupted for life. 

Before sending children to a college, therefore,, 
parents should acquaint themselves thoroughly 
with the character of its officers and professors, 
and with the practical effects of the institution, 
literary, moral and religious; they should then 
duly consider the temptations to which the stu- 
dents are exposed, and whether those whom 
they propose to place within their influence, are 
of a disposition to withstand them. It is ob- 
vious that some of these difficulties are miti- 
gated or removed where parents reside in the 
immediate vicinity of the college, and can 
watch over their sons ; or in cases where some 
judicious person, in the institution or near it, 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 303 

will undertake the guardianship of youth in 
behalf of their parents. But when no such 
provision can be made, it is a serious question 
for the parent to decide, whether the uncertain 
and contingent benefits of the college, are not 
too dearly purchased by the risk of the child's 
morals, to which he is exposed. If indeed a 
college can be found where the officers and 
professors are vigilant in the discharge of their 
duties, where they sustain a kindly and inti- 
mate connection with the pupils, and avail them- 
selves of the opportunities thus afforded for 
watching over their morals and supplying the 
place of parents — in this ease, the greatest dan- 
gers of college life may be avoided 

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 

There are two mistakes current in society, 
both of which have been incidentally touched 
upon, but which deserve to be placed more 
directly before the reader. The first is, that 
the whole duty of a parent, so far as respects 
education, is discharged by sending children 
regularly to school ; the second, that although 
parents must attend to the physical and moral 
culture of their offspring, that their minds, at 
least, may be left wholly to the schoolmaster. 
The reader may feel that the former of these 



304 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 

propositions has been sufficiently noticed, and 
I therefore remark only that school instruction 
never can supersede the necessity of vigilant 
parental teaching and training at the fireside. 
If a comparison were to be made between the 
two, I should not hesitate to attribute greater 
importance to home education than to school 
education ; for it is beneath the parental roof, 
when the heart is young and melted by the 
warmth of fireside affection, that the deepest im- 
pressions are made ; it is at home, beneath pa- 
rental influence and example, that the founda- 
tions of physical, moral and mental habits are 
laid; it is at home where abiding tastes are en- 
gendered ; it is at home where lasting opinions 
are formed. 

The other error, that the minds of children 
may be wholly left to school instructers, has also 
been noticed ; but it is worthy of more special 
comment. It may be true that some children, 
without counsel or guidance, may have that 
docility of temper and expertness of intellect, 
which will lead them to take ready advantage 
of the means of instruction afforded at the 
schools. But these cases are very rare ; and in 
all instances, children will study with livelier 
relish if they see that their parents are interested 
in their progress. If parents look over their 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 



305 



lessons with them, and approve or condemn as 
they are attentive or negligent, they will be 
quickened by a sense of responsibility. If pa- 
rents aid them in the mastery of difficulties, 
and teach them to think and reflect upon their 
studies, they will not only be cheered by the 
assistance, but will find, in the exercise thus 
given to their minds, that delight which the 
young bird feels as he first tries his wings and 
discovers the joyous power they bestow. An 
experienced and sagacious teacher told me but 
yesterday, that he had one child in his school 
whose parents treated him in this way, and 
that, although he had moderate abilities, he 
was one of the best and most successful of his 
pupils. Is it not a mistake of parents, then, to 
give all their thoughts and devote all their time 
to more worldly cares, and leave the mmds of 
their children to accident? For what employ- 
ment more delightful than to train the youthful 
intellect ; what occupation so full of pleasure as 
10 lead one's own child forth in the paths of 
knowledge, and, like Adam, when the world 
was neAV, give names and characters to all 
around ; what pursuit so profitable to the child 
itself, for whose benefit we are willing to toil, 
as to take him with us and climb the pinnacle 
of knowledge, teach him the dangers of the 
26* 



306 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 

way, aid him in surmounting difficulties, and 
at last unfold to him the world of truth, which 
lies outspread to the view of the beholder ! Say, 
ye parents, if ye would make an investment for 
your children, is it better to make it in cash or 
in wisdom 1 Is it better to lay up treasures in 
the bank, where the moth and rust may cor- 
rupt, and where thieves may break through 
and steal, or in the mind, whose stores are im- 
perishable ? 

Let parents, then, not leave intellectual cul- 
ture wholly to the schoolmaster ; let them rather 
look upon him only as their assistant, and, 
while they render him all needed aid and en- 
couragement, let them watch his progress and 
see that he performs his duty. Let them also 
accompany their children in their studies, and 
see that they perform theirs. Of one thing let 
them beware, and that is, not to permit children 
to be witnesses against their teachers. The 
relation of pupil and teacher is one which often 
leads the former to misinterpretation, perhaps 
to misrepresentation. 

Let not parents ever be discouraged in the 
mental culture of their children, under the idea 
that they are of inferior capacity. Children are 
of different degrees of quickness, but not one in 
a thousand is incapable of receiving the full 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 307 

benefits of instruction. And let it be remarked, 
that, with good education, children of moderate 
natural endowments are, in the average of life, 
happier and more useful than those on whom 
nature has lavished the gifts of genius. "Give 
mc neither poverty nor riches" is as wise a 
prayer in respect to mental gifts, as the more 
sordid treasures of the world. But let it be 
remembered that the mind, like the body, is 
strengthened by exercise, and, though it may 
be debilitated by being overtasked, it is still 
necessary, in order to give it vigor, to inure it 
to patient labor and continuous toil. As the 
proper adaptation of exercise to the degree of 
health and strength of the subject, is the great 
art of physical training, so, in mental culture, 
is the suitable exercise of the mind the chief 
means by which its powers are unfolded and 
enlarged. 

It may be well for parents to recollect that 
the habits of the mind are of more importance 
in youth, than the actual amount of knowledge 
they possess. A child that has habits of inves- 
tigation and reflection will soon gather stores 
of facts, and, being of his own acquisition, he 
will hoard them with care and use them with 
effect. It is better, therefore, to consider the 
early periods of mental education as properly 



308 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 

devoted to the discipline of the mind, to the 
establishing of good habits, rather than to the 
mere accumulation of knowledge. It is with 
learning as with money — if given freely, with- 
out teaching the means of its acquisition, it is 
apt to be lightly valued and lightly parted with, 
and poverty must then ensue, if the skill of 
obtaining more is not possessed. 

BOOKS. 

Previous to the invention of printing, in 
1441, books of every kind were scarce, and, 
being written with pens, were necessarily costly. 
A copy of the Bible was then worth as much 
as a good house and farm are now. King 
Alfred is said to have given a very large 
estate for a single volume. In these times 
it is clear that the art of reading must have 
been confined to few persons. How great is 
the change that has taken place in four hun- 
dred years ! Of the making of many books 
there is now no end, and the idea of instructing 
every member of the community, not only in 
the art of reading, but in the elements of geo- 
graphy, history and philosophy, is no longer a 
chimera. The printing of books upon type 
was a startling invention, indeed, but strange 
combinations have taken place in our own day 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 309 

to accelerate and expand its power. It would 
seem that the vast beds of coal which have 
slept for centuries in the gloomy recesses of the 
earth, could have little to do with the progress 
of knowledge. But these are now dragged 
from their repose, and compelled to lend their 
power to the manufacture of books. Hundreds 
of steam presses are at work on both sides of 
the Atlantic, throwing off countless reams of 
newspapers, pamphlets and volumes of every 
form, filled with every species of literature. A 
single printer in Scotland had a few years since 
forty thousand volumes of the various works of 
Sir Walter Scott, in the press, at one time. Three 
millions of a single tract, by Hannah More, 
were published in her lifetime. Books to the 
value of a million and a half of dollars go from 
the Eastern to the Western States, annually. 
From these scattered hints we can form some 
faint conception of the stupendous progress of 
improvement in the various arts devoted to the 
circulation of knowledge. 

But while we are impressed with the advan- 
tages we possess over the people of former ages, 
let parents consider one thing — that books are 
human productions, and that some are good 
and some bad. Every volume has within it a 
spirit, and imparts, to those who commune with 



310 INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 

it, either good or evil. Indiscriminate reading, 
therefore, is dangerous to most; to the young it 
is perilous in the extreme. Parents should ex- 
ercise the same discretion in the choice of books 
for their children, as in the choice of their com- 
panions. The danger is greater, indeed, from a 
bad book than from a bad associate, for there is 
a magic in print which gives it great authority 
over the mind of the reader. Nor should the 
vigilance of parents be restricted to any one form 
of publication. The newspapers which they 
admit to the fireside, to become the daily and 
weekly counsellors there, should be selected with 
great care. And this is becoming a matter of 
more serious consideration from the fact that 
many newspapers are now thrown forth upon the 
public, seeking to obtain patronage by minister- 
ing to the worst passions of the human heart. 
Let parents be cautious then on this subject, if 
they would not run the risk of taking into the 
bosom of their families, evil counsellors, which 
may not only poison their own minds but those 
of their children. 

It is impossible to lay down general rules in 
regard to the selection of books for children, 
which will not admit of many exceptions. It 
may be safe, however, to remark that works of 
fiction are usually fascinating to children ; they 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 311 

therefore need to be restrained, rather than en- 
couraged, in the reading of them. Those works 
which deal in facts, as geographies, histories, 
biographies, travels, &c, are the safest for young 
minds. The modern trashy tales, of both Eng- 
lish and American authorship, are by no means 
calculated to elevate the scale of morals, purify 
the heart, or chasten the conversation, of our 
American youth. These, without exception, 
should be banished from the family library. The 
works of Hannah More, though not in the best 
taste, are perhaps better in point of moral effect 
than those of almost any other English writer. 
Many of Miss Edgeworth's tales are admirable, 
but are not entirely adapted to our state of 
society. I am inclined to give a decided prefer- 
ence to the books for youth written by our native 
authors. Among these, it is not necessary to 
name, as worthy of particular commendation, 
the works of the Messrs Abbott and Mrs. Child. 



ACCOMPLISHMENTS. 

Beside the knowledge and skill which belong 
to a person's profession and qualify hiin to 
discharge the serious duties of life, there are 
certain graceful arts, which are useful, as being 
sources of pleasure to himself, and as rendering 



312 



ACCOMPLISHMENTS. 



him an interesting or agreeable member of so- 
ciety, I have already said something in respect 
to drawing and music, but it may be well to 
repeat that although there is great difference as to 
the aptitude of children for these arts, there are 
still none who are incapable of becoming pro- 
ficients in them, provided you begin in child- 
hood and follow a proper mode of instruction. 
The importance of these arts to individuals and 
society at large, as furnishing innocent excite- 
ments and refining pastimes, and therefore as 
tending to the purification of public morals, can- 
not be too highly estimated. Let parents do their 
duty to their children and society in this matter. 

The power of walking several miles a day, 
as well for a lady as a gentleman, though not 
usually ranked as an accomplishment, may still 
be entitled, from its utility, to decided encour- 
agement. 

Reading well is an art which gives the posses- 
sor the power of bestowing rich entertainment 
on others. But of all accomplishments, that 
of conversation is doubtless the highest. Wo- 
men excel in this art, especially so far as it is 
employed in the description of passing events 
and discussing the lighter topics of the day. I 
know that a lady's tongue is a standing theme 
of satire with men, but the conversation of an 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 313 

intelligent woman is among the richest sources 
of entertainment which society affords. 

But let any one who desires to be loved, 
happy, or respected, be careful not to indulge in 
personal satire or ridicule. A talent for either 
of these kinds of wit is seldom associated with 
a great mind or a good heart. Besides, there is 
a debasing tendency in these things. A satirist 
who is just and decent at first, after a little 
practice, disregards both equity and propriety. 
He is eternally seeking for some object of satire 
or point of ridicule. Under such efforts, the 
understanding is soon warped, and becomes as 
incapable of just perception, as a piece of wrin- 
kled glass of transmitting true images. I once 
knew a lady who had acquired a reputation 
for wit, and who had yet gone so far in a turn 
for ridicule that her sense of propriety seemed 
to be lost. On hearing a clergyman pray that 
"the happy day might come when men would 
all act with a single eye to the glory of God," 
she remarked that " she imagined it would be 
a long time before every body would see with 
one eye!" How pitiable is such degradation 
of taste and intellect ! Let us beware of such 
things, and teach our tongues not to corrupt 
our hearts. We should remember that there is 
something in human nature like gravitation, 
27 



314 ACCOMPLISHMENTS. 

ever tending to draw us downward. The ar- 
row that is aimed below the mark will never 
reach it ; for it will sink, rather than rise, in its 
flight. You must aim high, if you would hit. 
It is so in all moral things. A person who 
would enjoy the consciousness of a pure and 
generous heart, must cultivate pure and gene- 
rous speech ; at all events, he must avoid de- 
basing his own mind by dwelling upon the 
obliquities, vices and follies of others. 

The art of narration is one of easy cultiva- 
tion, and not only affords ample scope for the 
exercise of talent, but may also furnish much 
amusement and instruction. This seems to be 
a natural gift with some, and the society of 
those who possess it is generally much sought 
after. Parents may easily cultivate this talent 
in their children, by teaching them, of a winter 
evening, to recount the events and adventures 
of the day, or detail the substance of the books 
they may have read, or invent tales from the 
resources of fancy. 

As to the ornamental arts of the needle, I need 
not speak, otherwise than to remark that they 
are always becoming to women of every degree; 
and though I would not bestow upon them, in 
this age of utility, very high commendation, I 
would not wholly discourage them. The time 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 315 

has passed by when ladies were immured in 
lordly castles, and, being denied a participation 
in the cares and duties of busy life, and unfitted 
through lack of education for the pleasures of 
literature, were driven for pastime to the inge- 
nious mysteries of needle- work. This has 
therefore ceased to claim an absorbing interest, 
even at the hands of fair ladies, but it must be 
permitted to hold a humble place among grace- 
ful female accomplishments; always, however, 
being second to the more thrifty science of 
housewifery, 



MANNERS. 



Every one is familiar with the significant 
adage, " birds of a feather flock together;" which 
means that people of similar tastes, habits and 
pursuits will naturally seek each other's society- 
It is through the operation of this principle that 
we see the community grouped into a variety 
of circles. Thus, there are fashionable circles, 
political circles, literary circles, and many others. 
These things exist in all countries, and every- 
where arrange themselves nearly according to 
the same laws and in the same way. Two 
men, one of coarse tastes, a lover of profanity, 



316 



MANNERS. 



of rude jokes, and animal enjoyments, the other 
of a cultivated mind, delicate perceptions, and 
intellectual tastes, can find no pleasure in each 
other's society. The first will feel himself con- 
stantly rebuked in the presence of the last, and 
will be eager to leave him and seek the society 
of those like himself; the other will be shocked 
by the rude manners of his companion, and 
will remain in his society no longer than is ab- 
solutely necessary. Thus, impelled by two 
motives, a dislike of those who differ from them 
in taste and manners, and an affinity for those 
who resemble them in these respects, the seve- 
ral members of society are everywhere col- 
lected into distinct groups. . In every populous 
place, there will be, of course, a circle, or society, 
consisting of the more intelligent and refined. 
It is true that this may be, and generally is, 
sprinkled with the merely rich and fashionable ; 
these, however, are admitted into a society 
where they do not properly belong, from the 
homage they pay to intelligence and refinement. 
The laws of etiquette for each town or city are 
usually established by this circle of fashion, or 
what is called, as often in irony as compliment, 
good society; but this draws its edicts from 
some higher source, as perhaps from the metro- 
polis of the state, or from some one of our larger 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 317 

cities, and this from the higher circles of London. 
Our ladies borrow their fashions in dress from 
Paris, but in matters of etiquette, the last ap- 
peal is to the customs of England. 

Without undertaking to delineate the general 
character of this higher grade of society in 
other respects, it may be remarked that manners 
are usually carried to the highest polish and 
delicacy among persons of this class; and though 
some of the customs which prevail among them 
are unworthy of our notice, still, in attempting 
to ascertain the rules of good breeding, the pro- 
per course has been generally supposed to be 
to study this society and mark the conduct of 
the individuals who compose it. It is by such 
a process that a code of manners is usually 
made out. 

Though we may sometimes discover ceremo- 
nies and observances, in what is called genteel 
society, that do not appear to be founded in 
reason, yet such is the force of fashion and 
authority, that these are found to be followed 
by the world of gentility as reverently as more 
fundamental points of good breeding. Thus, 
for instance, we can see no good reason, in the 
nature of the case, why a person at a fashiona- 
ble table may not send a second time for soup, 
or, in finishing off his plate, may not gather the 
27* 



318 MANNERS. 

fragments and put them into his mouth with his 
knife. But these are interdicted, and no emer- 
gency of appetite, in either case, can excuse a 
breach of the law. 

The mode in which the manners of the re- 
fined are caught by those who are subjected to 
their influence, is easily explained. If we see a 
certain thing practised by one who occupies a 
high rank in society, it becomes associated with 
that individual, and, at last, partakes of the taste, 
respectability and refinement which we attri- 
bute to him. Even if the thing is insignificant 
in itself, it soon becomes, in our view, appropri- 
ate to a person of high breeding, and is thus 
commended to our imitation. If, on the con- 
trary, we see any thing done by a person who 
is coarse, rude and vulgar, it becomes in our 
minds associated with the individual, and the 
rude demeanor with which he is marked. Thus 
it is that certain manners become agreeable to 
us as proofs of good taste and good breeding, 
and others disgust us as being signs of obtru- 
sive selfishness, or of those evil communica- 
tions which are said to corrupt good manners. 

It is not my present purpose to attempt to 
codify the laws of etiquette, or draw out at 
length the enacted statutes of the fashionable 
world. These attempts have been frequently 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION, 319 

made, but I have yet seen no book which could 
be safely trusted in the hands of the young in 
this country, as furnishing a guide to manners, 
except, indeed, the "Young Lady's Friend," 
which is an excellent work for those to whom 
it is addressed. Lord Chesterfield's Letters to 
his son are written with great vivacity and dis- 
crimination, but, however well they may be 
adapted to a certain class in English society, I 
should be sorry to see them in the hands of our 
American youth. They are, throughout, founded 
in selfishness, and carry the impression that 
good appearances are of the utmost importance, 
while principle is either insignificant or secon- 
dary. Though they may inculcate the forms 
and ceremonies of politeness, they must ever 
fail of communicating that best and highest 
finish of good breeding, a feeling of good will, 
shining through looks, words and actions. In 
the absence of what appears to be a good 
manual of manners for parents to place in the 
hands of their children, one that is suited to our 
republican country, to a state of society which 
exists nowhere else and has never existed be- 
fore, I shall offer a few brief remarks upon the 
subject; hoping, however, that the author of 
Home, or some other lady in this country, who 
combines that writer's views of society with the 



320 MANNERS. 

talent of enforcing them, will ere long supply 
one of the most exigent demands of the com- 
munity. 

In my view, good manners must rest upon 
three principles, honor, grace and politeness; 
and whatever is incompatible with these, or 
either of these, must be inconsistent with good 
breeding. 

HONOR. 

This is a feeling of self-respect, which leads 
a person to shun every species of meanness. 
It is therefore incompatible with trick, artifice 
and cunning, by which some advantage is to 
be gained over another. It interdicts lying, de- 
ception and equivocation of all kinds. Such is 
true honor ; and though it may generally be 
considered rather as a masculine accomplish- 
ment, still, it is not unworthy of being woven 
in with the graces of female manners. The 
dignity, frankness and sincerity which the prin- 
ciple of honor imparts to the air and bearing of 
every individual in whose heart it resides, is 
not unbecoming in a lady, though it may be a 
more indispensable and appropriate finish to 
the manners of a gentleman. 

I need not say that duelling, though often 
designated as an "afiair of honor," usually 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 321 

springs from a violation of the principles of true 
honor. If a man has done another an injury, 
he best avoids meanness and consults his dignity 
by making due acknowledgments. If these 
are not satisfactory, does he act a noble part in 
being cowed by public opinion so as to risk his 
own life and seek that of another, rather than 
stand upon his own conscious rectitude 1 



GRACE. 

The definition of this, in application to man- 
ners, is that ease and propriety which win the 
favor of all. It displays itself in those move- 
ments of the body, those expressions of coun- 
tenance, those forms of speech, and that gene- 
ral bearing, which bespeak good taste, chastened 
feelings, and refinement. It is a quality which 
puts a stranger at ease, and banishes uncomfort- 
able restraint, even among those who may be 
of unequal conditions in life, or who chance to 
meet for the first time. It is opposed alike to 
affectation and awkwardness, and is of so cap- 
tivating a nature that it may be witnessed by 
the plebeian in the patrician without envy, and 
without exciting a painful sense of humiliation. 
As honor is the essential mark of a gentleman, 
grace is the special ornament of a lady. 



322 MANNETIS. 



POLITENESS, 

This consists in an agreeable personal demea- 
nor, and is founded upon the great rule of mo- 
rality, — do to another as you would have ano- 
ther do to you. We are apt to restrict this to the 
greater transactions of life. What I now propose 
is an observance of it in little things — in the 
every-day intercourse between man and man. 
I do not mean the arbitrary forms and ceremonies 
of mere fashionable life, but I mean an habitual 
regard for the feelings of others, and those looks, 
words and actions which spring from such a prin- 
ciple. We have no more right wantonly to wound 
the sensibility of another, than wantonly to in- 
flict wounds upon his body. We have no more 
right to steal away another's peace of mind, than 
to steal his visible and tangible property. In a 
moral point of view, as I have said before, the 
one act is as wrong as the other. We have 
laws to protect money, lands, and merchandise; 
politeness is a code of delicate morals which 
would throw protection around the nicer and 
subtler feelings of the heart. Establish these 
in the minds of children ; render them familiar 
by habit, easy by repetition. Teach a child to 
regard the feelings of his brothers, sisters and 
playmates. If you see him attempt, by look. 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 323 

word, or deed, to inflict pain upon the sensitive 
bosom of his little playfellows, interpose a de- 
cisive check. If yon see him indifferent, care- 
less, or wanton in respect to the feelings of his 
companions, let him understand that it is an 
offence against parental authority. Teach him 
to mould all his feelings and manners so as 
to please and gratify those around him. Self- 
love, as before remarked, is the master passion, 
and selfishness unchecked is likely to rule the 
heart, and obtrude its harsh features through 
every look, and tone, and gesture. If we would 
be virtuous, we must repress selfishness. If we 
would be loved, we must learn to check its dis- 
play. Politeness is a training which renders 
this easy. It teaches us, when tempted by self- 
ishness to snatch at some proffered pleasure, to 
defer our own wishes to the claims of others. 
It not only hides, but it crushes those petty de- 
sires, whims and caprices, which, if indulged, 
deform the character, and, if diffused, would 
deprive society of its brightest charms. 

I would say, then, teach politeness to children; 
teach it as a principle of duty ; encourage its 
practice, that it may become a matter of habit. 
After sleep, let the family circle meet in the morn- 
ing with a kindly salutation ; as they part to 
rest, let their last words be a fond " good night/' 



324 MANNERS. 

Meeting or parting, let the different members 
of the household be accustomed to show a deli- 
cate regard to the wishes, tastes and feelings of 
one another. This will exert a powerful influ- 
ence upon the heart itself, the source of all our 
emotions. It will give charms to the counte- 
nance, which no other beauty can bestow; a 
sweetness to the voice, which is better than 
music; and a graciousness to the manners, which 
is the best letter of recommendation. Thus, 
while peace is promoted in the family, the chil- 
dren will be trained in those manners which are 
called a good address, and which will do more 
to ensure their success in life than any wealth 
you can bestow. 

In illustration of this subject, let me relate a 
piece of history. A few years since, there lived 
in an adjacent state, and perhaps still live, a 
family of five brothers. They each received a 
small estate at the death of their father, and all 
settled in the same village. It was about forty 
years ago that they united in establishing a 
store. As this was successful, they started a 
second, and finally a third. In these, they 
were all equally interested, and, what is remark- 
able, each individual took from these several 
establishments whatever articles he desired for 
himself and his family, and of these no account 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 325 

whatever was made. There was no regulation 
or restraint to prevent one from taking more 
than another. Each supplied his family and 
his household, without question, and without 
accountability. This system was pursued for 
thirty years, and these five brothers went on in 
harmony. They had no family jars, no envious 
strife, no squabbles about property. At length, 
they were advanced in years, and the joint 
estate having increased to a large amount, they 
thought best to divide it, and the division was 
effected in perfect amity. Each individual 
received for his share nearly one hundred thou- 
sand dollars. 

Can 3^011 tell me the charm by which peace 
and harmony were preserved among these five 
families for so long a period, and under circum- 
stances so likely to beget suspicion or jealousy 1 
You will perhaps suggest that they were go- 
verned by religious principle. No ; they were 
not religious, but worldly men. You will per- 
haps say that they were high-minded and gene- 
rous. No; in their ordinary dealings with 
others, they were sharp and grasping as their 
neighbors. What then was the secret? I have 
myself been in the families of these individuals, 
and marked their intercourse. I could observe 
among them but one peculiarity, and that was 
28 



326 MANNERS. 

very striking. They were strictly and punc- 
tiliously polite to each other. They never met 
in the morning but there was a shaking of hands 
and cheerful salutations. They never parted at 
evening but with a kind "good night.' ; There 
was evidently a mutual feeling of respect and 
good- will pervading them all, and their habitual 
observance of the rules of politeness prevented 
their harmony from being disturbed. Polite- 
ness, then, performed an office, and wrought 
benefits in this family, which no other power or 
principle in society is accustomed to achieve. 

Let me remark again, that I do not now use 
the word politeness in that narrow sense which 
restricts it to merely artificial and arbitrary 
rules of society. I speak of it as a principle, 
founded on just morality, and leading to delicate 
propriety of action towards others. I mean by 
it an habitual regard to the feelings of others, 
founded on a conviction that we have no more 
right to wound the heart than to stab the body, 
and that it is alike our duty and our interest to 
make our manners grateful to those around us. 
Let this be once inwrought upon childhood ; let 
the child learn these precepts at the fireside ; let 
them be enamelled upon the mind by a mother's 
emphatic teaching, by a father's omnipotent 
example. Let them be rendered dear by the 



FIRESTDE EDUCATION. 327 

sweet memories of home. Let them be rendered 
familiar in the fond fellowship between brothers 
and sisters. Having done this for your child, 
let him go forth into the world, and he will 
carve his way to success. His kindly and gra- 
cious manners will win him easy access to the 
hearts of men. He carries Avith him a magic 
key, which will unlock every door which inter- 
poses between him and fortune. 

Let me present the subject to you in another 
point of view. It is the dispensation of provi- 
dence that inequalities of condition shall exist 
in society. The Creator has thrown the surface 
of the earth into a thousand forms. He has 
heaped up hills and mountains ; he has spread 
out plains and valleys. He has endowed some 
portions with barrenness, and others with fer- 
tility. To some regions, he has given a climate 
which scatters them over with never-dying ver- 
dure and bloom ; to others, he has sent the 
pinching and withering sway of never-relenting 
winter. And this picture of nature is but an 
emblem of the diversified condition of human 
society, as ordained of Heaven. He who ex- 
pects equality of condition expects that which 
providence forbids. One is endowed by nature 
with strength, another with weakness ; one 
with beauty, another with deformity; one with 



328 MANNERS. 

vigor of intellect, another with mental imbe- 
cility. Diversity in the moral, as well as in the 
physical world, is the design of Providence, and 
we might as well ask that the mountains and 
the hills should he shorn down, and the ragged 
surface of the globe reduced to one unvarying 
level, as that society should present uniformity 
of condition. 

I cannot now stop to illustrate the benefits 
which flow from the inequalities of society, but 
these are to my mind obvious, and abundantly 
prove that it is a scheme founded in infinite 
goodness and wisdom. But, however varied 
may be the lot of humanity in external things, 
there is a perfect equality of rights. "Do to 
another as you would have another do to you." 
This is the golden rule, which lays its injunc- 
tions on all alike, and levels the rich and the 
poor to one mutual standard of obligation. 
Here, then, is the foundation of that great prin- 
ciple set forth in our Constitution. All men are 
born free and equal; not equal in condition, but 
equal in their rights. If this were well under- 
stood and thoroughly practised, it would carry 
peace into every hamlet. That jealousy which 
springs up among the different classes of society, 
and which is often fomented by base and crafty 
agitators to serve their own purposes, would 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 3^9 

find no existence. But this evil does exist. It 
springs up in our villages, and carries strife into 
our legislative halls. In casting about for the 
means of correcting or mitigating this evil, I 
have often turned to fireside education as most 
likely to afford it. Teach your children polite- 
ness. Teach them to do to another as they 
would have another do to them. Teach them 
to mould thought and feeling, word and deed, 
look and manner, according to this holy precept. 
Teach them this, and if rich, they will have 
no offensive haughtiness; if poor, they will be 
disturbed by no bitter envy. The equality of 
rights being understood and practised, the ine- 
quality of condition will be no source of strife. 

. NOTES ON GOOD BREEDING. 

I have hitherto spoken of the principles upon 
which good manners rest, and which are as 
essential to a thorough discipline of the charac- 
ter as to the formation of an agreeable personal 
demeanor. But beside these principles, there 
are certain conventional rules established in 
refined society, which it might be well for every 
person to practise habitually. I shall therefore 
point out a few of these which seem most es- 
sential, and leave it to parents to bring up their 
families in the observance of them, as far as 
23* 



330 



MANNERS. 



they may think proper ; remarking, by the way, 
that in this case, as in all others, practice alone 
can give full effect to precept. The words of 
Locke are worthy of special notice here : — 
" Think not that children are to be taught pro- 
priety of conduct by loading their memory with 
rules, directing them how to act on every par- 
ticular occasion. Burden them not with rules, 
but impress them with habits." 

Manners at table. — Avoid all display of 
greediness. It was formerly esteemed a matter 
of propriety for each individual to delay the 
commencement of his meal till all were helped ; 
but as this introduces a stiff formality, and 
moreover causes the food to get cold before it is 
eaten, it is now considered proper for a person 
to begin to eat as soon as he is helped. Avoid 
putting food into your mouth with your knife, 
and help yourself to salt only with the salt- 
spoon. Eat with the least possible noise of the 
lips and teeth. Never help yourself from any 
dish with your own knife and fork, but apply 
to the person who is near it, or who undertakes 
to distribute its contents. If you are called 
upon to help any person, never disgust him by 
overloading his plate. If you help to gravy, 
put it on the plate by itself, and do not pour it 
over the food. Do every thing with delibera- 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 331 

tion and an air of leisure and delicacy. If asked 
to take wine, it is generally esteemed a point 
of etiquette to accept the invitation ; but if your 
health or principles forbid your drinking wine, 
you may merely touch it to your lips, or you 
may decline, saying, "I'll thank you to excuse 
me," or you may ask to be permitted to take 
water instead of wine. Easy, pleasant conver- 
sation should be promoted at table, but all argu- 
ment and discussion should be avoided. Awk- 
ward positions, restlessness, picking of the teeth, 
absence of mind, inattention to the remarks or 
wants of those around you, are gross breaches 
of good manners. Before coming to the table, 
take care that your toilet is finished, and after- 
wards do nothing which may seem to indicate 
that you are thinking of your dress or personal 
appearance. There is no disgrace in a good 
appetite; but even in satisfying it, we should 
habitually cultivate an air and manner which 
may assert the dignity of human nature, and 
discriminate between intellectual and moral 
beings and mere animals. The strict observ- 
ance of established rules of etiquette at table 
will have a tendency to produce this result. 

Manners in the street and on the road. — 
Never push against people in the streets, or in 
any crowded place. If by accident you come in 



332 MANNERS. 

contact with another, make immediate amends 
by saying, " I beg your pardon." It is esteemed 
indelicate for ladies to turn and look back in a 
public street. If in driving upon the road you 
meet another person, be solicitous to give him 
ample space for passing you. Children should 
be expressly forbidden to shout at passers by. 
These inconsiderate beginnings often grow into 
habitual rudeness and impertinence. If a man, 
young or old, meets a woman upon the road, 
where she is unprotected, and by word, look or 
deed does any thing to offend her delicacy, he 
displays a gross instance of dastardly brutality. 
Let mothers, especially, train their sons, under 
all circumstances, to pay a nice regard to the 
rights and feelings of the gentler sex. The ex- 
ample of a certain New-Hampshire mountaineer 
is worthy of all praise. A lady, with whom I 
chanced to be acquainted, was travelling, a few 
years since, on the White Mountains. In as- 
cending a steep acclivity, some accident hap- 
pened to her carriage, and while the coachman 
was repairing it, she went up the hill on foot. 
On turning an angle in the road, she met with 
a wagoner, who respectfully bade her good 
morning. She then made some inquiry as to 
the road, and concluded by expressing her sur- 
prise to find people living among these wild 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 333 

hills. "Well, ma'am," said the wagoner, "I 
suppose we couldn't live here if we didn't once 
in a while see a lady." This was genuine 
politeness, — pure, native gold, and not the less 
brilliant for the rustic ore through which it 
shone. 

In riding on horseback, a gentleman should 
be at the lady's right, for he can better offer her 
assistance in this way, should she need it ; she 
is also more at her ease, from a consciousness 
that her position is more graceful to her attend- 
ant. In travelling, cultivate a pleasant inter- 
course with those who give you the opportunity; 
but obtrude yourself upon no one. Put up with 
little inconveniences, and be not pertinacious 
about your rights. Avoid all John Bullism to 
tavern-keepers, servants, and others. Be nei- 
ther inquisitive nor unduly communicative. 
Readily conform to the customs of a private 
family in which you chance to be a guest. 

Rules in regard to dress. — Man is not pro- 
vided, like the animals, with a natural cover- 
ing, but he is endowed with ingenuity and left 
to his own invention. In eastern countries, the 
fashions of dress have remained the same for 
centuries, and among the peasants of Europe 
they continue, with little change, from genera- 
tion, to generation. But in. the commercial 



334 MANNERS. 

cities, they are as variable as the hues and 
shapes of the clouds. The milliners and man- 
tua-makers of Paris are the lawgivers on the 
subject of ladies' dress throughout Christendom. 
The tailors of London constitute a final court 
of appeal in respect to coats, waistcoats and 
pantaloons. Fashion in dress is not without its 
importance. A clergyman who should enter 
the pulpit in regimentals would be considered 
as bringing scandal upon the cloth; and a mer- 
chant who should appear on 'change in a sai- 
lor's jacket, would subject himself to ridicule 
and contempt. The true rule in regard to dress 
is this — let it be appropriate to your condition. 
A person who is eager to adopt any new fashion 
of dress is always despised, for it is proof of a 
little mind. Keep rather behind than before the 
fashion. Study simplicity. Let ladies avoid 
the display of gaudy colors. Cleanliness and 
neatness of attire are among the most decisive 
marks of good breeding. Vulgarity often dis- 
plays itself in ostentatious and dashy decoration. 
Miscellaneous hints. — Personal cleanliness is 
indispensable to those who would be esteemed 
well bred. The teeth, especially, should be 
kept scrupulously clean. Spitting, combing 
your hair, and cleaning your nails, are three 
things to be done in private. A superabun- 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 



335 



dance of whiskers on a man's face evinces 
a proportionate lack of brains. A dandy in 
dress or manner can only find his model in 
the monkey tribe. An exclusive, one who holds 
himself aloof as being better than his fellow- 
men, may be ranked with the orang outang, 
who refuses to associate with any other mem- 
bers of the four-handed race. At church, let 
your manners ever be marked with reverence 
and decorum, paying respect to the rights and 
ceremonies of the worshippers, though you may 
be of a different creed. In conversation, do not 
court argument, and never use contradiction. 
Speak in a low but distinct voice, and be rather 
solicitous to draw others out than display your- 
self. Ladies are excellent talkers, when duly 
prompted, and he who has the art of drawing 
them out may derive great pleasure and instruc- 
tion from their society. Be not ready or prompt 
to take offence, and shun temptation to bitter 
retort. The spirit of the porcupine is of no 
great dignity. Good humor is a better shield 
than an armory of poisoned quills. Converse 
rather about things than persons. You may be 
witty upon the former, but beware of being so 
in respect to the latter. Shun loud laughter, 
loud talking, and horse play. Avoid all bustle. 
A quiet demeanor is essential to dignity of man- 
ners. 



336 GENERAL REMARKS. 

GENERAL REMARKS. 

l?rom the observations that have been made, 
I think it will be obvious to the reader that 
parents are responsible for the physical train- 
ing, the moral education, and the mental in- 
struction of their children. If in any of these 
respects they do not undertake to be their teach- 
ers, they are still bound to provide suitable 
means of culture. But this is not the whole 
extent of their duty. Parents are generally 
called upon to select the profession of their 
children for life, and to furnish the particular 
instruction necessary for its successful pursuit. 
This is a subject, the full discussion of which 
would fill a volume ; but I only propose here to 
give a few general hints in relation to it. 

In the first place, let parents select the pro- 
fession of their children, not with a view to 
family ambition or parental vanity, but with par- 
ticular regard to three points : — 1. The health, 
constitution, and aptitudes of children; for it 
must be remembered that some cannot endure 
sedentary occupation, that some are fitted for 
action rather than contemplation, and that none 
are likely to succeed in a vocation for which 
they have no taste or talent; 2. the proba- 
ble happiness of children, taking into view the 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 337 

whole life, and weighing against the dangers, 
cares and vicissitudes which attend an am- 
bitious and brilliant career, the peace, safety 
and content of a humbler vocation; 3. their 
usefulness as members of society. And in re- 
spect to this, I wish to say a few words to 
wealthy parents. They have the means of 
giving their children a good education, and they 
usually employ them to this end. But are 
they not too solicitous to have them established 
in cities, engaged in mercantile pursuits, or de- 
voted to some one of the learned professions'! 
Let me suggest to such parents a course which 
might often better secure the happiness of their 
children, and greatly promote the good of the 
community at large. Suppose that these sons 
of the wealthy were properly educated for coun- 
try life, and should accordingly settle in the 
country, as farmers, merchants or mechanics. 
Possessing wealth and superior education, they 
would enjoy great influence, and this might be 
used to the benefit of all around. An intelli- 
gent, well educated, gentlemanly mechanic, or 
farmer, or merchant, in a country town, who is 
disposed to associate with his neighbors on 
friendly terms, has opportunities for doing good, 
a range for the exercise of laudable ambition, 
and sources of general satisfaction, far beyond 
29 



338 GENERAL REMARKS. 

what an individual can usually obtain in the 
crush of the crowded city. 

It is hardly necessary to remark that the 
general education of children should have some 
reference to their after vocation. Still, it is im- 
portant that all should receive that degree of 
mental culture which may not only place them 
at least on a level with society around them, 
but enable them to reason wisely upon the 
social, political, moral and religious questions 
which are agitated in the community, and upon 
which every individual is required to form opin- 
ions. It is a matter of necessity that profes- 
sional men should possess extensive erudition. 
But there is no reason why learning should 
be restricted to them. The mechanic, the 
farmer and the tradesman may be benefited by 
knowledge, and may, without neglect of their 
proper vocation, cultivate a love of letters. 
'•A little learning," it is true, " is a dangerous 
thing," for it sometimes begets conceit, and 
leads its possessor into fatal danger, as the ad- 
dled moth is drawn into, and destroyed by, the 
dazzling name. But this being guarded against, 
the laboring man may still consult his own hap- 
piness by the pursuit of liberal knowledge ; and 
parents who design that their sons shall follow 
some laborious calling, may wisely give them a 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 339 

thorough English education, and thus imbue 
them with a strong and lasting taste for litera- 
ture. Persons who are thus instructed, though 
devoted to a life of labor, still appear to me to 
possess very eligible prospects for life. 

I happen to be acquainted with an individual, 
in the vicinity of Boston, who is a working 
man, laboring day by day with his hands, and 
who has, for years, invested the surplus of his 
earnings in books. He has a taste for good edi- 
tions, — a circumstance which deserves the more 
commendation from the fact that bad paper and 
bad print are so much in vogue, — and he has 
accordingly collected together one of the most 
splendid libraries in this country. It now con- 
sists of several thousand volumes, embracing 
many of the most costly and rare productions 
of the British press. It is the design of the pro- 
prietor to make such a disposition of this library 
that it shall be kept together after his death. 
With such an example before us of elevated 
taste and exalted public spirit in a working 
man, let it not be imagined that the pure plea- 
sures and ennobling influences of literary pur- 
suits are necessarily denied to those who lite- 
rally earn their bread by the sweat of the brow. 

There is, I think, a common mistake in soci- 
ety, that a man's character is determined by his 



340 GENERAL REMARKS. 

vocation. If this be generally true in point of 
fact, there is no good reason why it should be 
so, and we know indeed many exceptions to 
the rule. Almost any vocation, in this country, 
if pursued with industry and skill, results in 
wealth, and a man may as well display those 
qualities which claim the respect of mankind 
in one profession as another. Parents may, 
therefore, have little solicitude as to the par- 
ticular vocation they may select for their sons, 
provided these are imbued with good moral 
principles, trained to industrious habits, and 
possessed of cultivated minds. There are two 
cautions, however, which it may be well to 
subjoin : first, that young men be thoroughly 
warned against that greedy appetite for wealth, 
which has led so many persons, in this coun- 
try, unduly to expand their business, or engage 
in flattering speculations, and which have 
finally resulted in bankruptcy and ruin ; and, 
second, that they be also warned against a 
thirst for political preferment. If a man's fel- 
low-citizens, unsolicited, confer upon him a 
public trust, he may properly accept it, and 
take to his heart the gratification which the 
bestowal of such confidence is calculated to 
excite. But there is no species of ambition, in 
our country, so universally repaid by disap- 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 341 

pointment, self-reproach and conscious degra- 
dation, as that which leads a man to depart 
from his proper pursuits, and court, with a 
shifting sail, the breezes of popular favor. 

There is one point that may need to be en- 
forced upon the attention of parents, in plan- 
ning out the path of life for their children, and 
that is, that happiness usually depends less 
upon one's vocation and upon the success with 
which it is pursued, than upon a proper balance 
of responsibility. If a man is so situated as to 
hope for nothing and to fear nothing, he is 
of course miserable. The father who toils to 
place his child beyond care, toils for his child's 
wretchedness. We all need to be hoping or 
fearing, and this cannot be but by taking upon 
ourselves some risk or some responsibility, so 
that by exertion we may attain the good desired 
or escape the evil threatened. It is the just 
balance of this responsibility that constitutes 
good fortune; a balance which excites us to 
steady action, with cheerful hopes of success 
and moderate fear of failure. Whoever is thus 
situated, be he rich or poor, in the vale of ob- 
scurity or the temple of fame, is as happy as 
the lot of humanity permits. He who is called 
upon to exercise neither of the great passions 
of the soul, hope or fear, whether he is above 
29* 



342 CONCLUSION. 

or below the stirring breath of fortune, usually 
becomes the subject of ennui, despondency, 
or hypochondria ; his bosom engendering " vile 
thoughts and creeping miseries." as the depths 
of a stagnant lake become infested with rep- 
tiles of every form. It is he who is wrought 
into activity by the gentle force of changeful 
passions, whose breast is like the flowing wave, 
reflecting bright images on the surface, and 
holding fair forms within. 



CONCLUSION. 

"Is duty a mere sport, or an employ ? 
Life an intrusted taieat,. or a toy } " 

In coming to the close of this work, I cannot but feel an 
apprehension that these pages may fail of producing the 
good results I could desire. Enlightened parents have heard 
so much on the subject of education, that they may be weary 
of the subject, and therefore turn away with disgust. On the 
other hand, those who, like the untutored animals., regard 
their offspring with interest only so long as they require pro- 
tection and while the instincts of nature impel them to watch 
over them, will never be reached and roused from their 
insensibility by so humble a voice as mine. But I am still 
cheered by remarking the spirit of improvement that is abroad. 
The dreary clouds of a long dark age are drifting by, and the 
light of a better day is dawning through upon society. The 
recent shock in the commercial affairs of the world has 
checked mankind in the headlong pursuit of wealth, and 
called them to reflect whether it is wise to invest the whole 
interest of the immortal mind, in those goods, which so easily 
take to themselves wings and fly away. There is an ancient 
Greek story of several persons, who, in making a voyage on 
the Mediterranean, were east away and thrown upon an 



FIRESIDE EDUCATION. 343 

island, having lost all their goods. Among them was a 
scholar, who remarked to his fellow-voyagers, whose entire 
wealth was invested in merchandise, and which was now 
sunk in the sea, that his treasures, being stored in the 
mind, had survived a calamity which had proved fatal to 
theirs. The pith of this anecdote has come home to the 
bosom of a whole nation within the last few years ; and there 
is no doubt that the recent impulse given to the cause of edu- 
cation, throughout this country, has in part arisen from the 
wholesome reflections which have been suggested by the ad- 
versities of trade. At such a moment, in the current of such 
a movement as is now making, even humble efforts may not 
be without effect — as a feeble oar, when the boat speeds with 
a flood tide, may contribute something to its onward pro- 
gress. I therefore give my book to parents, far as it falls 
short of my desire and my design, and. will still venture to 
hope that it may not prove wholly vain. If, as is asserted 
by the poet, 



Man is a soil which hreeds 



Or sweetest flowers, or vilest weeds — 
Flowers lovely as the morning's light, 
Weeds deadly as the aconite- 
Just as the heart is trained to bear 
The poisonous weed or floweret fair," — 

I will entertain a confidence that there are many reflecting 
parents disposed to admit the full force of the obligation 
which rests upon them, and who, therefore, will not turn a 
deaf ear to the appeal which I have here made in behalf of 
their children. 

One suggestion more, and I have done. I have not 
deemed it necessary constantly to enjoin upon the reader 
the ineffectual character of all human efforts, unseconded 
by the Spirit of God. That the heart of the parent and the 
teacher, toiling in the field of education, should habitually 
ascend to Him who alone can "give the increase," might 
seem too plain to require line upon line and precept upon 
precept. 



